Warriors in High School
by CatieRx
Summary: Jay, Holly and Lion are about to go to high school. Although their school is known for good results it has many problems as well... The three have to leave their strict and boring life, and venture into the jungle. High School human AU.
1. Prologue

_Yay, a prologue to introduce the situation._

 _Everyone's a human in this AU. They still keep their names, because it's simpler that way. They get their warrior names after they turn 18._

* * *

Squirrelflight lazily stretched herself on the couch. The dead silence of the whole house usually spelled disaster, but she knew that it was holidays - and her children were spending two days with their grandparents. Sometimes she thought about what she would do if her children weren't around for a day, but when such day finally came, she found herself doing nothing, and enjoying it every second. Sound of footsteps interrupted her bliss, but the scent of coffee brought it back a moment later. Brambleclaw entered the room, and placed the two cups of coffee on the glass table in front of her, after which he slowly sat down in the armchair across her.

"What will we do when they leave for college?" Brambleclaw voiced her thoughts.

It was easy for her now to be happy when the three were away. She knew she would see them again in two days. But it wasn't that long until they had left for good - and then the real longing would start. But she pushed those worries away - for now.

"Mmm, party, like we did when we were teens ourselves." She laughed.

"We're not that young anymore! And my dancing skills would be embarrassment these days." He said, taking a sip of coffee.

"They were an embarrassment back then, too!"

Brambleclaw scratched his neck, looking away.

"But I didn't care back then! I'd die of self-conciousness now."

They sat together quietly for a while. It was nice for them to be there together. Brambleclaw put down his cup of coffee and straightened himself down in his armchair. Squirrelflight tensed, as she knew that meant a serious conversation was coming.

"What is it?" She anticipated his issue.

"Have you thought where will we send our children to high school?"

She played with her hair for a while before answering. She didn't gave it much thought before - it seemed obvious to her what should happen.

"We'll send Hollypaw and Lionpaw to some good private, catholic school, and Jaypaw will still be homeschooled."

Brambleclaw gently shook his head.

"I can't see that happening. You know how hard it was to convince Jaypaw to stay home three years ago. He won't want to stay home with his mom now, that he's a grown man."

"Grown man! He's only fifteen. He can become independent when he's legal adult."

"They are grown teenagers, Squirrelflight. You can't keep acting like they are kids forever".

Squirrelflight looked down. She knew he was right. Their children were getting bigger, more disobedient, more rebellious... It was a natural turn of events. But that didn't make it any easier for her.

"I assume you have your own idea what to do, then?" She asked. Brambleclaw never asked a question without knowing the answer in advance.

"I thought that maybe we could send Jaypaw to a boarding school for blind children. I think he would appreciate being away from home, an opportunity to prove himself... As an independent person. I think he would like that."

 _Boarding school!_ Her little boy would be so far away... So rarely at home. She couldn't stand the thought of not having all her children around. But deep inside, she knew that Brambleclaw's argument made sense. But was it the best answer? She wasn't sure. That was definitely something that needed more though and had to be discussed.

"And Hollypaw and Lionpaw?"

Brambleclaw sat deeply in his armchair and folded his hands.

"I've been thinking about Warriors High."

Squirrelflight froze with her her eyes wide.

"You know what reputation that school has. It's one of the worst public schools out there. I know it's not that far away, but I don't want our kids there."

Brambleclaw rested his chin on his hand.

"They got really dedicated teachers. They got best results in the state in the last two years."

"I know that!" She gritted her teeth. "But you know what neighbourhood is that. Poverty, violence, drugs... It may be a good school for troubled kids. But not for decent ones, like ours!"

Squirrelflight eyed her husband closely. He watched her calmly, unmoving.

"Even good students who go in there improve a lot. Besides..." Brambleclaw scratched his cheek.

"Don't you think our children are getting a little sheltered?"

Squirrelflight shook her head.

"No! There are just very decent, polite kids. And even if they were, a kid was _killed_ there, Brambleclaw! I know I'm paranoid at times, but there's something I just won't tolerate!"

Brambleclaw narrowed his eyes, but Squirrelflight continued.

"I don't have anything against public schools, but not one like that!"

"Look. I know it doesn't look that good. But I've checked it out, and I think it would be the best place for our children. I think that accident clouds your judgement."

Squirrelflight pointed her finger at him.

"No. That school is out of question. We'll send them to St. Patrick, where most of their current friends went, or some other decent school. But not somewhere where they will get killed."

He lowered his head.

"Do you know their plans?"

"No. But surely they don't want to go to that place?"

Brambleclaw sighed. "Hollypaw told me she wants to go to Yale."

Warmth opened in Squirrelflight's heart. Her little daughter was so talented, and so ambitious.

"She will make it. Whether she goes to that school or not."

Her husband nodded. "She will. But I'm pretty sure she has plans for her high school."

Squirrelflight stood up.

"Then I guess we have no choice. We'll have to talk to them once they get back from Firestar and Sandstorm."

Her husband smiled.

"Mhm. But first, let's decide on our choice."

* * *

"Sit down, kids." Squirrelflight said looking at Hollypaw and Lionpaw. Their kids exchanged surprised glances and slowly sat down. Lionpaw was wearing his designer hoodie and was nervously scanning the room. Hollypaw's clothing could easily be mistaken for a school uniform - if only Squirrelflight didn't know that her daughter liked to look presentable, if overly formal. She was calmly looking at her parents.

"We wanted to talk about your school choices."

Lionpaw closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. _What he thought this is about?_ Hollypaw dropped her sight, bitting her lip. Squirrelflight was taken aback by her lack of enthusiasm.

"Mom... I know you invested a lot into our education, and I think your choices were very good, and I'm grateful for your support and interest." Squirrelflight felt her pulse increasing.

"But... I think I should choose my own school now." Squirrelflight closed her eyes after hearing her daughter's well prepared words. She must have thought about it for some time. Squirreflight took a deep break and tried to make the friendliest smile she could.

"Of course, sweetie! You're almost adults, and you should have input into your future. That's why me and your dad are here. To talk about your suggestions."

Hollypaw was still staring at the carpet.

"It's just... Mom. I want to go to Warriors High."

Squirrelflight needed a lot of effort not to explode that very moment. She shot a glance to Brambleclaw, but he raised his hands in the protest.

"Hollypaw. That's not a good place to be in." Squirrelflight gritted through teeth.

"But mom! They got the best results on SATs! And their teachers have so many awards! It's my best chance to get to Yale!" Hollypaw voiced her protest.

"Sweetheart, you're very talented. You can get to Yale even without going into such places."

Hollypaw was holding the table with her hands, and Squirrelflight couldn't help but notice that her daughter was trembling. _She's really determined to go there._

"I don't like that school, but I think you have the right to choose high school you will attend for yourself."

Her daughter raised her sight, meeting Squirrelflight's gaze with her watery green eyes.

"And you won't be mad?"

"No. I won't be too happy about it, but I accept your choice. If that's what you want."

Hollypaw jumped out of the couch and gave a tight hug to her mother.

"Thanks mom! You're the best! I won't disappoint you!"

Squirrelflight returned the embrace. After they were done, Hollypaw shot an embarrassed look to her father.

"Oh, I'm sorry, dad. Are you okay with it?"

Brambleclaw simply nodded. Squirrelflight turned her attention to her son, who was wandering around the room with his eyes, yawning.

"What about you Lionpaw?"

"I want to go to Warriors High, too."

While barely noticed just a moment ago, now whole attention turned to him. Even Hollypaw was wide-eyed with surprise.

"But, why?" Squirrelflight asked suspicious.

Lionpaw merely shrugged.

"It's the best school, you know. SATs, and so forth. I care about my education, too."

"Yes..." Squirreflight said, trying to gather her thoughts.

"Well, then it's agreed!" Lionpaw stood up and started going towards stairs.

Squirrelflight clenched her fist, annoyed. She couldn't say no to Lionpaw when she just agreed to Hollypaw. But she didn't believe Lionpaw's sudden concern with grades and college.

"That's it, then." Brambleclaw said, concluding the meeting.

* * *

Squirrelflight knocked on the sturdy wooden door, standing between her and their last child. She waited a bit, since there was no reply, and knocked again. No reply again.

"I'm coming." She warned, after which she entered Jaypaw's room, Brambleclaw following her.

His room was neatly organized. Bed was aligned with the left wall, and next to it was Jaypaw's desk. She never saw him use it, and she was skeptical about buying one for a blind kid, but Jaypaw heavily insisted on having one. Now, it only served as a decoration. Top of the desk was completely devoid of any items. On the opposite side of the room was his wardrobe, with three rows of bookshelves next to it. Jaypaw himself was lying on his side in his bed, facing away from the door. He had his earphones on, which is probably why he hasn't replied before.

"Jaypaw!" She said loudly, so they could start the conversation.

Jaypaw moved his hand to his ear, and removed one earphone.

"What?" He said as he turned to face his parents.

He was wearing his gray, wrinkled t-shirt and black boxers. Squirrelflight sighed internally. Even if it was the summer holidays, he could at least dress himself properly!

"We need to talk about your school plans." It was Brambleclaw who took the initiative this time. Maybe it was for the better, since it was his idea.

"I'm not staying home again." Jaypaw growled.

"Mind your behaviour." Brambleclaw retorted sharply. "Until you're eighteen we make the decisions. We want to help you and you should cooperate."

Jaypaw sat down on his bed, clenching iPhone in his hand. Squirrelflight was happy that her husband was here. He knew better how to deal with Jaypaw's aggressive moods.

"Sorry." Jaypaw took his time with continuing. "But please, don't let me be homeschooled again. I feel like outsider. Hollypaw and Lionpaw can have friends and do cool stuff... And I'm sitting home with mom. All the day, every month, every year."

That tugged Squirrelflight's heart. She knew that Jaypaw didn't feel well with it all... But she didn't knew any better way. If she was alone, she would probably break down from hearing how miserable her son is from spending time with her. She would blind herself if that would help her son.

"We figured out so, son. We think you're almost a grown man, and we trust you to act responsibly. This is why we want you to go to Clear Sky High."

Jaypaw just stared blankly ahead, without making any reaction.

"It's a good school. It's a school for blind and visual impaired teenagers in Springfield."

Jaypaw bowed his head.

"Wait, Springfield? Isn't that at the other side of the county? It will take hours each day to drive me there." A realization struck Jaypaw.

Squirrelflight noticed Brambleclaw's muscles tensing up.

"It's a boarding school."

"You... You are sending me away?" Jaypaw tightened his grip. Squirrelflight was worried he was going to break his phone any moment.

"We think it's the best way. We think it's the best way to provide you with both quality education and give you independence that you've always wanted."

Jaypaw rolled back to his bed, turning his back on his parents again.

"I'm not going away. I won't let you kick me out."

Brambleclaw scratched his head, and gave Squirrelflight a bewildered look. Squirrelflight didn't particularly want Jaypaw to go to that school, but they both thought he would be overjoyed about it. And now they were both at the starting point.

"Okay, son. Where would you want to go, th-?" Her husband asked.

"Where are Lion and Holly going?" Jaypaw asked before his father finished his sentence.

"Warriors High."

"Then I'll go there too!" Jaypaw spat.

 _Those kids will drive me insane._ Brambleclaw was looking at his son with concern. Squirrelflight wrapped her arm around her husband. _It will be difficult. But we'll pull through._

* * *

It was dark outside, and the kitchen was illuminated by a single lightbulb above them. They were sitting quietly at the kitchen's table. The day didn't go as well as they wanted.

"I'm worried." Brambleclaw started.

"So am I. So I was from the very beginning."

Brambleclaw was tapping his fingers on the table. He was probably thinking about the same thing as her. They tried to convince Jaypaw to other options, but he remained unyielding. They could have made him do something else, but for how long can they force their way through his life?

"You knew that this school had many problems. Bullying, crime, poverty, violence... It will break them." She broke the silence that arose. "We can still change our mind."

Brambleclaw looked upwards. "I think you underestimate our children. I know you want the best for them, but they are strong. They can defend themselves. You can't watch over them forever."

"You think so? It's not that simple..." She replied.

"Lionpaw's tough enough. But in his case, I'm not worried that he will get overwhelmed, I am afraid of his motives for going there. He wasn't telling us truth, about _why_ he wants to be there." Squirrelflight continued.

"I know".

"Hollypaw... She's very emotional. The kids there can be pretty nasty. I'm worried that she will get hurt."

Brambleclaw simply kept eyeing her carefully.

"And what's with Jaypaw? I don't think he's good at socialization. And that's not mentioning how they will treat his blindness."

Brambleclaw nodded gently. "That's what I'm worried about, too, Squirrelflight."

They sat down there silently worrying for another hour. But they knew that their decision couldn't be changed.

* * *

 _That's it for the prologue! Most of the other chaps will be from the three PoV, so you will see how I translated their warriors personalities into teenagers!_

 _Feel free to send suggestions and wanted pairings! Or characters that you want to appear in the fic.  
_


	2. Chapter 1

Jaypaw was sitting at the table, not yet fully awake. Radio wasn't playing in the background, which was one of the signs that Squirrelflight was not in charge of the breakfast. It was easy to miss the sound of Hollypaw's footsteps. Her step was gentle, like cat's, and that unnerved Jaypaw a bit. Everyone had a different way of walking, so he got used to recognizing his family by the sound of it. Squirrelflight made small, but energetic movements. Brambleclaw strolled around lazily. Lionpaw stomped about like a rhino. And Hollypaw's steps very easy to miss, if one wasn't paying attention. A glass plate was placed on the table in front of him.

"Eat well!" Said Hollypaw, indicating that it's ready to eat, but Jaypaw scented the food first. He knew what it was going to be, but he needed to be sure that it's edible. He made the mistake of eating without checking first, and had to meet the surprise of burned eggs on his tongue before. It smelled okay, so he scanned the table with his hand, and picked up a fork.

"Eggs and bacon again?"

He heard chair closing down to the table.

"Well, if you want something better, you'll have to do it yourself. And make some for me, too!" She said playfully.

He took a small bite of bacon, and it felt very soft. Maybe it wasn't cooked enough this time. Jaypaw didn't mind too much, though, and began to eat.

He could hear the silverware on the opposite side of the table, and he imagined his sister eating very slowly and deliberately. But the overall quiet in the kitchen brought one question to his mind, which he vocalized.

"Where's Lionpaw?"

"Left early. Probably to meet with his friends."

He probably knew that Hollypaw's going to make breakfast, and decided to go eat pizza instead. Jaypaw frowned. _He could have taken me with him._

"You're going to our school today, aren't you?" Hollypaw inquired.

"Mhm." He answered, not really feeling like eating any more.

"Squirrelflight is taking me there for orientation, so I'll know where everything is." Usually Jaypaw hated being treated in a special way like this, but this was a very reasonable thing to do for him. He'd rather visit the school a week early, to learn where everything is, than getting lost with hundreds of kids running and screaming.

"Have you seen Warriors High before?" Jaypaw asked.

"From a distance." She replied with hesitation in her voice. "It's not in a very good shape. I'm not going there until the school starts."

"If it's such a ruin, why do you want to go there?"

Hollypaw took a sip of juice.

"They get the best results on tests. Well, for the good students that come in there, anyway. Why else?"

Jaypaw realised that he's thirsty too, and checked the right side of the table, until he grabbed a glass, and drank a bit of juice, too.

 _Banana juice? The taste totally doesn't mix with eggs and bacon._

"You're a terrible cook, sis."

"You said that already! I don't care, I'm not going to be a housewife. I want to be a professor, or a politician. Maybe I'll be the first female president!" She said dreamingly.

"Shut up." He said under his breath. He knew his sister is going to have a great future, and everyone talked about it all the time. He wished he was so confident, but the truth was obvious - he had no future. Nobody needs blind people. He would just end up living on a welfare, staying in projects alone for his whole life, until eventually he would grow old and die.

"What about you?" Hollypaw's voice took him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm a terrible cook, too. And I'm not going to be a housewife either."

"Not that!" She retorted. "Why did you say you want to go to Warriors High?"

Jaypaw shrugged. What a stupid question.

"Where else would I go? They wouldn't go with the trouble of driving me around somewhere else."

"I get why you didn't want to stay with mom for three more years, but what's wrong with that boarding school?" She sounded genuinely puzzled. Though that was expected of Hollypaw. She was always earnest, but rarely was that a good thing in this house.

"Boarding school is just a name for a cage for unwanted kids. And since it's for blind kids, you can bet it's _safe_ and boring.

"Nothing wrong with being safe." She scolded him.

"Maybe for you. But I know that _safe_ means prison. It's not _safe_ as in don't play with guns, it's _safe_ as in don't have a pair of scissors in your room, or you will stab yourself in the eye. Don't walk too fast, or you will trip and break your spine. Preferably, they would just tie us down. For our own safety, you know."

"No way. I guess it would be a strict place, but you are just being ridiculous."

Jaypaw sighed. Of course she wouldn't believe him. Everyone treated her like her age. While Squirrelflight and most adults would just put a pacifier in his mouth and put him on a stroller.

"Remember that blind kids camp they send me to once?" He asked, hoping that he could convince her.

"Yes, that was like sixth or seventh grade."

Jaypaw did a quick calculation. That sounded about right.

"I thought you really liked it." Hollypaw continued.

"Oh, please. It was the worst of all the treatment I've ever got." Jaypaw grabbed his forehead with his hand.

"Okay, so for starters, it sucked. They planned some attractions, but they were pretty dull. For a big opening, they brought some dogs, so we could pet them and play with them, or whatever."

"So what's wrong with dogs? That doesn't sound too bad." Hollypaw retorted.

"What sort of an attractions are dogs? They are dime a dozen. You can go out and pet a dog anywhere if you want to. That would be good for kindergarten kids. Just goes on to show how they viewed us. Not to mention, it was just another /therapy/ in disguise." Jaypaw rambled.

"Sure, it's lame but it doesn't sound that bad. All camps are lame. You are just so negative about everything."

Hearing that word just pressed the wrong Jaypaw's button. He picked up his fork again and started stabbing the eggs. It was pretty satisfying to him to feel the yolk coming out, like it was bleeding out.

"Really? You sound like those camp counsellors. It was actually in the rules, you know. No _negative attitude_. If you weren't all rainbows and sunshine, you got punished. Anyway, that's just the start. Then we all had to come in circle, and speak about what we cared about, what we wanted to achieve, what are our dreams, and so on."

"Honestly, Jaypaw. That's like every camp ever. Just integrating. It's only a chore if you think about it as one."

Jaypaw just ignored her. Hollypaw was one of these naive people who probably believed all that fake support of a support circle. But Jaypaw was sick of it.

"Then we had the specially crafted adventure for us! And probably the most humiliating so far." Jaypaw felt bad merely thinking about it.

"The trail of senses. So, they made a trail out of these plastic flagpoles and connected with tape. It was made so we could _explore different sensations_. We had to go barefoot through it, and it was filled with pinecones, pine needles, gravel, and all sort of crap. I had a bonus _sensation_ of stepping on a literal crap. Probably left by one of those annoying dogs. And they played some obnoxious sounds and must have burned some incense or something, because it smelled awfully. So, we had to go through it, and describe what we _sensed_. For most part, I felt embarrassment. It's like we were being pranked on, and counsellors were playing a game of what the most ridiculous thing they can make us do."

"Uh..."

At this point Jaypaw was unsure if Hollypaw finally accepted why the camp sucked, or if she thought that was amazing fun that he didn't appreciate. With Hollypaw one could never know.

"Oh, and we also got a special attraction! We got to _swim_ in a lake!" Jaypaw made the most fake grin he could muster.

"Of course, that would actually be fun, so we couldn't go deeper in than to our knees. You know, for _safety_ reasons."

"That sounds lame" Hollypaw finally admitted it.

"For the same reasons we weren't allowed to dress or wash ourselves. No, we were too dumb to do it, apparently. We had to get dressed and washed by counsellors. Granted, a lot of kids there didn't know how to do that, because their parents have been babysitting them so much, they didn't let their blind kids do that. So that's my problem. They just see us as eternal babies, too stupid to do anything right."

Jaypaw took a break to finish his glass of juice.

"That's how that boarding school would have looked like. Can't do anything, because counsellors, I mean teachers, are watching. That's not independence, like Squirrelflight said it would be. I'm sick of spending time with glorified babysitters."

All that talking left Jaypaw without air. He felt awfully tired, and his head began to ache. And yet, the day was merely starting.

"I see." Hollypaw said after a long break, with Jaypaw being unable to decipher what she really thought.

"You done with eating? I'd like to clean the dishes."

Jaypaw gave a half-shrug.

"Whatever."

A new set of footsteps entered the kitchen. His mother, he guessed by the steady movement.

"Are you ready Jaypaw? We should be going to your new school any moment."

Jaypaw stretched himself, yawning, before replying. "Yes, I'm ready."

"Go to the car, then. I'll join you in a second."

Jaypaw went on to entryway, and put on his shoes and his purple jacket. He opened the closet, and searched the top section of it, for his cane. He hated using it, and how it gave his disability away. It was much easier for him to move around with it, particularly in an unfamiliar environment, but he still usually refused to use it, as useful as it was. But he knew he had to get a good grasp of his school now, if he wanted not to use the cane once the school starts. He left the house and waited for Squirrelflight.

* * *

His mother drove him to his new school. The trip wasn't that long, it took twenty minutes at most, so it was bearable. The car finally halted, and the sound of the engine died down.

"You can leave. School will be in front of you. But watch for steps." Squirrelflight said.

He hated how she babied him around. He could find his way around, that's why he took his cane. But he wasn't going to show much displeasure, he got what he wanted after all. He left the car, and felt weak, cold wind on his face. There was some traffic noise, but not much, especially for this time of the day. _Not many cars around_. Hollypaw told him earlier, that the school is in terrible shape, and he was wondering how much of that was true. He found the stone steps Squirrelflight was talking about in a few moments. He placed his foot on the first step, and moved it along the edge. _Uneven_. _Parts are chipped_. _And uh, there's a large chunk missing here._ Event the stairs to the school felt like a death trap. Jaypaw would have to remember this, it would be easy to trip here, if one forgot about those holes. He moved to the side, and found the rails. Thankfully, the steps were complete near them, if uneven, so he decided that was the way he was going to enter, and leave, the school.

"What a mess." He said to himself.

"Well, that's what you wanted so much." He heard his mother behind him. "Hope you like it."

His mother opened the door to school with a loud squeak. Jaypaw shook his head in annoyance, but followed his mother in.

"We are in a small hallway. There's a door in front of us that leads to main school building, and a side door to administration. I'll let them know that we came."

Inside smelled like a typical old building. He wasn't sure what made that smell, but it sure was hard to mistake. The wooden floor squeaked with every step he made. He could only imagine how horribly annoying it would be with all the students in the school. The corridor itself was fairly narrow - four, maybe five yards at most. If that was the main entry, he would have to be careful when entering and leaving the school. Crowd would care little for him.

He heard some steps ahead.

"Hello. I'm Brackenfur, I'm a teacher at this school. Are you Jaypaw?" The person said. That teacher tried his hardest to sound friendly, and Jaypaw figured that he was somewhat old. Jaypaw knew that meant this teacher would be the first person to treat him like a baby.

"Yea. Um, my mother went to administration to sort some things out." He added awkwardly. He didn't really want to be alone with the teacher.

Silence arose.

"Oh, are you..." Brackenfur started, but his mother's voice interrupted him. He didn't need to finish, Jaypaw knew what he wanted to ask.

"I'm done, Jaypaw! Are you Brackenfur?"

"I am. I will give you a tour of our facilities. Come in." He said, moving in the direction opposite from the entrance. Squirrelflight followed immediately, and Jaypaw went right behind her.

At the end of hallway were plastic door, which didn't seem to fit with Jaypaw's mental image of some old building that's crumbling down as they were walking around it.

First Jaypaw's steps in the main building were followed by more squeaking noises coming from the wooden floor. Most annoying sound.

"It's an old building, isn't it?" Jaypaw asked, as he scanned his surroundings with his cane.

"It is. It really limits what renovations are we allowed to do with this building, because it's a historical one. That's why we made the second school building next to this one. Building are connected, so it isn't an inconvenience to the students. Though, there aren't many classes there, but we have a brand new gym." He finished with pride. Guy could be a good seller. Well, that's what he handles in the school, anyway. Selling the school to the parents.

"Since you mentioned the gym, how would PE look for my son?" Squirrelflight added in her typical concerned mom voice.

Brackenfur took longer than usual to respond.

"I'll be honest, I do not know at this time. But together with PE teachers, we will surely create an inclusive environment for his to participate in all the activities."

Jaypaw cringed. He hated the word _inclusive_ , for he heard it way too often. But he was happy that at least he hasn't heard the term _accommodations_ so far.

"Do you play any sports, Jaypaw?" Brackenfur finally decided to pay any sort of attention to Jaypaw.

He shook his head. He opened his mouth to reply but his mother was first.

"Not really, he's a little nerd." She said, and started chuckling right after.

Jaypaw covered his face with his hands. _It won't be long_ , he reminded himself. Soon, he wouldn't be spending whole days with her, and that thought calmed him down.

"I play some chess." He replied to his future teacher.

"He's really smart." Squirrelflight said. Jaypaw wished she could just shut up for the rest of the day.

"Interesting." Brackenfur said. "Can you play in your head?"

Jaypaw turned his head towards Brackenfur and nodded. Though he learned to play on a touch chessboard for blind people, he resented it like most of the things specifically made for blind, and out of pure stubbornness practiced for many months to be able to play without any board at all. That didn't make him all that much better chess player, and Jaypaw's record against his sister was awful. But many people still found that impressive, and Jaypaw felt his heart pumping out of being genuinely noticed and being shown attention.

"Impressive. Say, how would you reply to E4?"

"E5" Replied without a thought, but Jaypaw fully concentrated on the game.

"Queen to H5." Brackenfur replied, and Jaypaw momentarily lost all interest. Until now he thought that he was honestly being appreciated, but with this move he realised that his teacher just played a trap against beginners.

"Knight to C6." Jaypaw replied with a sigh.

"Bishop to C4." Jaypaw began to grow a little annoyed because of all these tricks, as if he was being tested.

"G6." Jaypaw defended his position in the most straightforward way.

"And if Queen to F3?"

"Knight to F6." Forcing a better position for himself.

Brackenfur was silent for a long moment. "Impressive. You are an excellent player." He admitted in the end.

 _Not really, you are just bad._

"I didn't know you very that much into chess! I haven't seen you play with Hollypaw in a long time." Squirrelflight interrupted with her nonsense comments.

Of course he didn't play with Hollypaw, he lost all the time.

"You may consider joining our chess club." Brackenfur said.

 _So that's what it was all about._ Jaypaw shrugged and followed his teacher.

"Oh, and here's what I think will be your main classroom, number 105. It's the integration class."

Jaypaw was instantly alarmed by that.

"What's an integration class?" He asked, but had a good idea what was the answer.

"Well, it's a class with both the healthy students and those with special educational needs." Teacher replied.

 _Special educational needs._ To Jaypaw it sounded like his teacher just called him a retard.

"They have all the classes together, in the same classroom, to provide more mobility to the students -"

 _Keeping everyone still in one place is the opposite of mobility, duh._

"there's additional teacher to provide any necessary accommodations, -"

 _Oh yeah, I'll be getting babysitted the whole time I'm in school._

"And they have separate PE program. But aside from that, they teach accord to the same educational program as the rest of the school." Brackenfur finished.

"That's great! I just wanted to ask about accommodations but that answers my questions. We are really grateful for your help." Squirrelflight said happily.

"Speak for yourself." Jaypaw growled.

"Jaypaw!" His mother scolded him, but he didn't care. Even in a normal school, she still wanted to place him in the cage.

"Please excuse me for a second." She said, surely to Brackenfur, and after that grabbed Jaypaw by his arm and dragged him away to the side.

"What's with you?"

Jaypaw was wondering if his mother is really that dumb, or just pretending, to shame him into agreeing.

"I'm not going to that class." He said, crossing his arms.

"Why are you so rude? Everyone wants to help you, and you want to go to a normal class, where everyone will have to go out of their way to help you."

"Are you saying that I'm not normal!?" Jaypaw shouted angrily.

Squirrelflight took a big, audible breath.

"You know that's not what I'm saying. But what if you will need help? Teachers may not have time just for you every time."

"I won't. Need. Help." He replied with gritted teeth.

Squirrelflight gave a resigned sigh and started moving back.

"Would it be possible for Jaypaw to be in a normal class?"

* * *

Lionpaw jumped on the couched, and landed himself comfortably on it. He pulled his iPhone from his pants, and checked his facebook to see if his pals were doing cool things.

He barely had time to check his notifications, when he heard Holly coming into the living room.

"Where were you?" She asked.

"Berrynose got a bike and he wanted to show it to me and guys. He even let me have a ride." Lionpaw knew he wanted to have one too, when he could get his license. Cars are cool, but nothing compared to bikes.

"He may have gotten a cool bike, but everyone knows that my bike is the best on on the street." His sister said from across the room, narrowing her eyes.

Lionpaw wished he could ignore her, but what she said was just too stupid to leave without comment.

"By bike I meant an awesome motorcycle, not your lame-ass bicycle."

"Oh." She just replied surprised.

With his sister's nonsense over, Lionpaw could turn over to important things, like adding pic of him riding the bike on his facebook.

"Jaypaw went with mom to the school." Holly said.

"And?" He asked, not seeing her point.

"Aren't you nervous?"

"About?" He asked.

"How the school will go."

Lionpaw put his phone aside, because clearly Holly wouldn't leave him alone.

"Relax. It's a chill place. No helicopter parents, no prayers, no uniforms, no strict rules, no stiff losers." He listed.

Then he took a look at Holly.

"Well, most people there aren't stiff losers." Holly just stared at him blankly, clearly not understanding his quip.

Lionpaw noticed that his sister was twitching a silver ring with an engraved cross, which she was always wearing.

"Please tell me you won't be wearing it in school." Lionpaw asked hopefully.

She cocked her head. "It?" She asked puzzled.

"Your purity ring." He said that with disgust. Their previous school really promoted the whole idea, but it was such a dump. Even Lionpaw's parents didn't really support the concept, but they never said no to Holly's ideas, no matter how ridiculous. And purity ring was probably the most stupid one she came up with so far.

She gave him an angry look. "I'm not ashamed of my beliefs. And you shouldn't be either!"

Lionpaw rolled his eyes. _No one asks you to be ashamed, I just want you not to be completely obnoxious about it._

"Flashing it like that is the easiest way to become the uncoolest person in the school." He warned.

"Uncoolest? Is that even a word? Besides, I'm not flashing it, I'm just _wearing it_."

Lionpaw sighed. No way he would convince her to do anything reasonable. But he wanted to try at least.

"Holly, here's a quick guide to surviving high school for you. First, no wearing crosses, purity rings, or talking about religion."

If it went any further, Holly would become a Nun, like aunt Leafpool.

His sister gave him a serious look. "Lionpaw, honestly. Your faith isn't just some accessory that you can..."

He knew all her nagging, moralizing lines by heart, so he didn't even bother to let her finish.

"Second, no dressing like a Japanese schoolgirl, unless you are into weeboo nerds. And speaking about that, don't talk with nerds or like a nerd."

"So it's better to dress like a poser, or like I like to call it, like a Lionpaw?" She finished her lame insult with a smirk. She must have thought she was clever.

Lionpaw looked down to check if he really misdressed himself. But no, he was wearing his H&M hoodie and Converse track pants.

"You call that posering, but the reality is, that if you dress cool, people will treat you cool. And if you are not cool, you are a loser. And you don't want that."

That wasn't exactly true - school hierarchy was a far more complicated thing - the cool guys were at the top, then were their followers - not exactly cool themselves, but they occasionally basked in the favor and coolness of people they followed, and that elevated them above normal people.

Below that were three layers of losers. First, were the nerds, where he hoped his sister would end up. Being completely obnoxious about things that annoyed normal people, no idea how to dress themselves, talking like idiots. No one wanted to be near a nerd, unless you felt like punching someone.

Even lower were the 'tards. It didn't necessarily meant someone with mental problems, but these were the people who looked physically different. Disabled kids, fat kids, and those with mental issues. Everyone was disgusted by them, but you couldn't do anything to them - they were monitored 24 hours a day by the teachers or their helicopter parents. Lionpaw knew that Jay would end up here, and he felt bad for him. But there was little he could do to help him, without falling to the bottom himself.

At the bottom of the school society were snitches and teacher's pets. Nerds and 'tards at least kept to themselves, or were too stupid to understand what they were doing - but those people actively tried to hurt the cool kids, jealous of their position. And that's where Lionpaw was worried his sister would end.

"Uh-huh. And you really believe this."

Lionpaw shrugged. If she went on to ignore his advice, it was her problem.

"You watch too many high school dramas." Holly replied, and turned away, finally leaving Lionpaw alone.

 _Training wheels are about to come off. Let's see how you handle the real world, Hollypaw_.

* * *

First real chapter, to introduce our characters! Next one - first two days of school. Though first day is only going to be an assembly. We'll see if the school lives up to its reputation.


	3. Chapter 2

_Thanks for all the support! I know I'm not very good at writing, but I hope to improve! I decided to split what I planned into two different chapters. I think that will flow a little better._

* * *

Hollypaw rolled to the other side of the bed. She didn't sleep well that night for some reason. She reached out with her hand to the table without looking at it and grabbed her phone. _6:45?_ It wasn't until quarter later that she had set her alarm on. But it was too late to go back to sleep, so she may as well go on with her morning preparations. She had chosen her clothes for today yesterday for efficiency, so she simply grabbed everything she prepared - her black blouse, dark green skirt, knee-high black socks and a sports bra. She took everything and headed to the bathroom. She shared the upstairs bathroom with her brothers, but she wasn't surprised that it was empty. She usually was the first to it, with her brother sleeping for as long as they could. A quick, cold shower helped her wake up completely. She dressed up into her clothes, and moved to the mirror to check if everything's fine. She was as impeccable as she expected, especially her long, black hair, her small, personal pride. She picked up her comb to straighten them. Styling them didn't take too long, as if everything in the world wanted to make this day perfect for her. She checked the time - 7:01. It only took her a quarter. Prepared for the day, she went down the stairs. Squirrelflight was probably preparing breakfast for them, and Hollypaw liked to keep her mom company.

She trotted down the stairs and headed towards the kitchen. From the lowest steps, she could already hear some old song playing from the radio. Squirrelflight was in front of the counter, putting toasts with cheese on the plate.

"Hey sis." Hollypaw was surprised by her brother's presence at the kitchen's table.

"Why are you up so early?" She asked him.

Jaypaw shrugged.

"Hello sweetheart! Ready for the big day?" She said, as she approached the table.

"Of course!" She smiled.

Jaypaw yawned.

"Big day? It's only start of the year assembly. We could as well not go and nothing would change."

Hollypaw poked Jaypaw with her finger.

"Hey, it's important! We get to see our teachers, meet our classmates... You don't want to miss on that."

Squirrelflight nodded.

"Exactly! And you can't keep acting like that in school."

Jaypaw hissed.

"You tell me that every single day for the last month!"

"Because that's important. And I'm worried about you."

"I can handle myself."

"I know." Squirrelflight said, still looking worried.

"Here are your toasts, Hollypaw." Squirrelflight said, placing them in front of her daughter.

They moved on to eating breakfast intervened with some small talk to the sound of The Scorpions songs. Time dragged on, as it did every morning.

"Where's Lionpaw?" Squirrelflight asked. "We've got to leave in ten minutes, and his toasts are already cold."

"Maybe he likes them cold." Hollypaw added.

"More like he likes playing video games 'til the morning." Jaypaw added.

"It doesn't matter why he's not here. Could you go for him, sweetie?"

Of course, it was always her that always had to fetch Lionpaw. She pushed her hands against the table to help her stand up, and went up the stairs. She knocked three times at the door to his room, but without reaction. Hollypaw didn't want to walk in on Lionpaw doing... something. She wasn't exactly sure what she was afraid Lionpaw would be doing, but it surely would be horrifying. She repeated her knocking, just to give her brother some time. But after another lack of reply, she knew she had to come.

"I'm coming!" She said, opening the door.

Lionpaw's room was in the state of total chaos. A pile of worn clothes was lying in the corner of his room, his electric guitar in the center, lying next to his console's controller, and dirty socks were all over the place. With the first step in, she could feel the morbid smell of teenage boy's sweat, which made her wish she could cut her nose off. She added a mental note, to never enter this room without a hazmat suit again. And there he was, still asleep in the bed. He was lying on his stomach, with face turned sideways. Hollypaw carefully navigated all biological hazards throughout his room to reach his bed. With a swift move, she took the pillow from under Lionpaw's head and smashed him the hardest she could in his face. Lionpaw started flailing and rolled off the bed, dragging his sheets with him.

"Where!? What!?" He shouted.

"We're supposed to leave in ten minutes and you still aren't ready!" She shouted at him, angry about his lack of responsibility.

"Gee, don't scare me like that, Holly!" He stood up and sat on the edge of his bed, massaging his face.

"We have no time, Lionpaw! You have to wash, dress up and eat breakfast, all in ten minutes. How are you going to do that?" She stood up in front of him, pressing her hands to her hips.

Lionpaw waved his hand, sending her away.

"Hey there, you're not my mother! I'll skip the shower, spray some Axe instead, then I'll dress up, and I'll eat something on the way." Lionpaw replied, rolling his eyes.

Hollypaw wasn't sure if chemical proliferation treaties permitted that, but what she was sure of was that she wouldn't want to be near Lionpaw for the rest of the day. She added another mental note, not to sit next to him in the car.

 _Guys are so dumb._

Lionpaw entered the school's gym, where the assembly was to take place. He made it a point to enter it after Holly and Jay, so they wouldn't end up sitting anywhere near him. He didn't hate his siblings - he cared for them somewhat, but there was nothing more lame than spending first day of school with your family. Jay has already taken a seat in the highest row of the bleachers, near the wall, and Holly sat dawn at the lowest row, closest to the playing field, on the same side of the building as Jay. With Holly taking care of him, he could go anywhere he wanted to. He moved down a few levels, and sat down near some guys who didn't dress like nerds. One was a short, scrawny, ginger guy, wearing camo clothes and the other was wide shouldered, only slightly shorter than Lionpaw himself with a white hoodie and jeans.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Lionpaw started.

They didn't answer immediately. They took a chance to scan Lionpaw, after which they exchanged glances and nodded.

"He seems okay." The ginger said.

"Hey dude. I'm Owlpaw, and this is Foxpaw. Have you seen some peeps that came here?"

"Yeah, this was supposed to be a place for us, street people. And now it's swarmed with those geeks." Foxpaw added.

Lionpaw looked around the room. There certainly were a bunch of weirdos in the gym.

 _I guess Holly wasn't the only one who wanted to come here because of good school results._

"Are you scared of some losers?" Lionpaw asked.

Owlpaw reached out with his arm towards Lionpaw, but he pushed it away.

"We're not afraid of anything. But we're not letting anyone take what's ours."

Lionpaw raised his chin. "Then there is only one thing we can do. Show those nerds their place." He smiled. He already had a plan.

* * *

Hollypaw was sitting on the edge of the bleachers, with no one sitting next to her. She contemplated just sitting next to some girls and just striking up some conversation, but she found it more difficult than expected. What if they laugh her off? Or think that she's stupid? Maybe someone would start to talk with her first. That would be a lot easier. She tried to push those thoughts away. It's no big deal, Hollypaw, it's just the first day. You can make friends later. You won't be alone for the whole high school, just like you have been alone for your whole life. She let out a sigh. Who was she trying to lie to?

"Sorry... is this seat free?" A voice from her left said.

She turned around to see a tall, olive-skinned boy with hair to his shoulders. His brown eyes were looking at the seat next to Hollypaw.

"I... guess." She replied, feeling her hands getting sweaty.

He sat down and it took him a few moments to say something. "Cool."

 _That's your chance, Hollypaw. You already said something, so it won't be as awkward talking to him_.

"So... What's your name?" She started. _I sound so stupid._ "I'm Hollypaw." She added, not waiting for his reply. She turned her head away, not wanting to see his reaction to her blabbering.

"I'm... uh... Fallen Leaves." He didn't sound most comfortable either. He was probably weirded out by my reaction, she thought.

"That's a weird name." She said, and immediately shrunk back to her seat. "I mean... Sorry, that was insensitive." _Christ, I'm so stupid._

"Not a bad one, quite cool one! But... Uh... Unusual around here." Maybe it would be better for everyone if she really didn't try to talk with anyone.

"Yeah..." He replied quietly.

"Yours would be unusual anywhere outside the region, too." He said after some time.

She forced herself to muster a smiler. "I know! I Haven't seen a Hollypaw, or any 'paw in a book. Or a movie."

"Yeah. I guess mine could be seen somewhere, because I'm supposedly a Native American. Not that I'm in touch with my culture besides having this name."

"Oh."

Lights on the main gym field went on, and Hollypaw could see that a group of adults were already there. The man in the center, holding a microphone was a huge, bald guy in a suit. He looked more like a bodyguard than a teacher.

"Hello and welcome to the Warriors High. I'm Dustpelt, and I'll be your principal."

* * *

Jaypaw wanted the day to be over. He barely listened to his principal, who was doing a typical welcoming speech and tried to get encourage students to work. He wasn't the only one uninterested, from the noises all round him, he figured out that most students were more interested in getting to know other students than in what the principal had to say. Of course, no one wanted to talk to Jaypaw, but that was to be expected. Finally, the gym exploded into mass clapping, which he figured that meant that speech was over. People started to leave, making hell of a noise. Jaypaw decided to wait a bit, until the noise died out, before leaving for... Something. /Maybe I should have listened to what the guy was saying./

"Come on, Jaypaw!" Hollypaw said. "We've got to go to the main hallway and see who's our homeroom teacher and what classes are we in!"

"I won't be bothering you, then. I hope we'll get to see each other in the classroom." Some male voice, that Jaypaw didn't recognize, said.

"See you!" Hollypaw answered the boy.

"I can find my own way there." He retorted, offended.

"Is that why you are still sitting here?"

Jaypaw growled. "I just don't want to get trampled by all those idiots."

Hollypaw took a deep breath. "Hey, Jaypaw... Maybe you should try being nicer. You're just so angry all the time. Everyone can see it."

"Just leave me alone. Go bother your boyfriend." Jaypaw spat.

"He's not my boyfrie-" Hollypaw tried to explain, but he just stood up and left the gym.

He had a good idea where the boards with class assignments where, so he headed there. He wasn't stupid, and he could move around on his own. But Hollypaw just had to show up with her stupid, good natured, yet completely useless advice.

"Hey, Jay!" Of course, he had to bump onto his brother. "All three of us are in the same homeroom class, bummers."

Jaypaw felt an urge to smash his head into the wall. There was probably no way he could free himself from his siblings.

"We have to go to classroom 203 now, to get our schedules. I met some pals, so I'm going with them. See ya!"

Thankfully, at least Lionpaw didn't want to drag Jaypaw with him. Classroom was upstairs, and Jaypaw had no trouble finding it.

He took a seat in the first row, and waited for whatever was going to happen.

"Hello class. We'll be seeing each other a lot." A familar voice said.

"I'm Brackenfur, and I'll be your homeroom teacher, and I will also teach some of you math."

Many students behind Jaypaw groaned at the word "math".

"Don't worry, you'll get to love the queen of sciences. But there will be time for that. Now, today I wanted to have you all introduce yourselves to each other, but our attendance today is lacking, so you will do that tomorrow. Now, I'll hand you in your personalized schedules, and some forms to fill or for for your parents to sign. Please hand them in this week."

Jaypaw got all the documents soon, and he moved his hand over them - all completely smooth. Of course no one cared enough to give them to him in braille. He layed his head on his desk. School was barely just starting and he already had enough.

"You won't have any electives, nor health classes until next week. Remember to choose your electives wisely. As for health classes, as per state rules, we will need permission from your parents for you to participate."

"Yes?"

"Are there any AP classes available for us?" Hollypaw asked.

"No, they are not available for freshmen."

The teacher answered a few more questions, after which the school was over for the day.

* * *

"So annoying I have to start the day with PE." Hollypaw complained to her brothers.

"What electives are you guys taking?" Lionpaw asked, warily observing his siblings.

"Biology and Physics." Jaypaw answered.

"I'm taking Business Management and Drama." Hollypaw chimed in.

"All right, then I know what not to take. Not that I would ever want to attend that crap."

Brambleclaw entered the room with a stack of papers.

"All right, got everything signed." He placed all of them on the table.

"Hollypaw, you forgot to hand me your health class permission slip." He added afterwards.

Hollypaw found herself biting her lip. She straightened herself in her chair, trying to find the right words.

"Dad, I... don't want to attend that class." She said, and both of her brother's attention immediately turned to her.

Brambleclaw sat down in the armchair across the table.

"Why?"

"I don't think it's going to fit with my values. You know, with how they show porn in classes and things..." She said with hesitation.

Lionpaw exploded into a roar of laughter. "Porn in health class!? You wish." His laughter continued, loud enough to be heard in the whole house.

"Dad, can we talk?" She asked, interrupting her dumb brother.

"Jaypaw, Lionpaw. Now." He said sternly.

They took their things and left upstairs. Hollypaw could hear Lionpaw saying "She's killing me," as he left the room.

Brambleclaw rested his elbows on the table, and pressed his hands to his face, as he twined his fingers.

"Hollypaw, there won't be any porn shown in health classes."

Hollypaw kept twisting her ring, focusing her sight on it.

"I don't want to. Please don't make me."

"Hollypaw. I know you are a very mature person. And because of that I expect you to explain your reasons beyond 'I don't want to'."

That comment hurt Hollypaw a lot. She wasn't sure of Brambleclaw's reaction, but nothing hurt her more than his disappointment. But he was right. She owed him an explanation. She looked straight into his eyes.

"Okay. It's just that I'm... So uncomfortable with it. And it feels dishonest. Remember this?" She lifted up her hand to show her ring to her father. He didn't approve of that idea either, but agreed to it after her long pleading.

"It feels like I would be breaking my promise. And dad, it's not like I'm going to need what they tell there, okay? I'm not like that. I just want to maintain my personal integrity."

Brambleclaw took her words without a physical reaction. That wasn't unusual - her father had enormous composure, but she wished she knew right away what he was thinking.

"You will need to learn how to learn things that are uncomfortable. That's an important aspect of growing up. And I think that what you would learn there is important, whether you agree or not. I won't force you to attend, but I want you to think about it again, before giving me the final answer."

Her heart soared. "Thank you, dad. You gave me a lot to think about. You're the best." But she already knew what her answer was going to be.


	4. Chapter 3

As much as Hollypaw liked school, she thought that it was simply inhumane to start at such an early hour. All her muscles ached, and doing the physical exercises was the last thing she wanted to be doing. Carrying her backpack around felt like too much exercise already, with all the books she was carrying around. _They could have given us the codes to our lockers yesterday_. She made the last few steps downstairs to the ground floor. It was obvious that the whole building was finished recently. Everything smelled with freshness, or just barely dried paint. She liked the light green that the walls were painted in. The long corridor had two turnings right, the first leading to locker room for boys, the second one, obviously, to locker room for girls, where Hollypaw headed.

About two dozens of girls were standing in front of the locker room, their backpacks lying on the ground. Most of the girls were already split into groups, exchanging conversations. Hollypaw envied other people's ability to just be there and... talk. When she tried to approach someone she didn't know well, everything inside her twisted into a knot. But she has made a decision - this time, she would make friends. And not just someone who she could talk about homework with. No, this time, she wanted a true best friend, she could share her soul with. She just needed to make the first step.

She approached the first girl she could see, who had her back turned on Hollypaw. She was wearing black, leather clothes, and wasn't talking with anyone. Hollypaw hoped that maybe she was another social outcast and they could understand each other.

"Hello." Hollypaw started.

The girl turned around. Somehow Hollypaw didn't expected her to have her nostrils pierced, and that surprise made her take a half-step back.

"What do you want?" She asked, sounding annoyed. "What are you staring at?"

"Just... wanted to get to know you, since we're in the same class, and... stuff. I'm Hollypaw."

She tilted her head sideways a bit, and made a half-smile on the right side of her face.

"Yeah. And I'm Heatherpaw. You satisfied now?"

Hollypaw felt her pulse increasing. She wasn't sure if she should continue.

"Like... What electives did you pick? Maybe we have the same interests."

Heatherpaw let out an exasperated sigh.

"We're already in the school, do we need to talk about the school, too?"

Hollypaw cringed. _So that's faux pas._

"What did you do to your face?" She asked. Hollypaw wished she knew what the comment was about, but she didn't carry a mirror with her. But now she noticed that her conversant face skin was really smooth, and... shiny? She looked more like a movie character than a real person. That must have taken a ton of make-up. Probably, since Hollypaw didn't know much about make-up.

"Nothing?" Hollypaw answered uncertain.

Heatherpaw squinted her eyes closed, while shaking her head.

"Ew.. Really? You must be really brave to leave home like this."

Hollypaw felt a hand gently touch her shoulder.

"Hey, are we going to get the key to the locker room, will you come with me?"

She didn't manage to turn around, as just a second later the girl jumped in front of her. She was fairly short - slightly above five feet, if Hollypaw was to guess. She had long brown hair with blonde highlights, and was wearing brown spaghetti strap shirt and jeans. She made an enthusiastic smile, grabbed Hollypaw's hand and started dragging her towards the teacher's room.

Hollypaw put her backpack on the ground, not willing to carry all those weight with her on the way.

"You're Hollypaw, right? I'm Hazelpaw. Oh, and don't hit your head on the door frame!"

The girls both went through the door, but Hollypaw didn't understand Hazelpaw's comment. Sure, Hollypaw was tall, short only of a inch to be 6 foot tall, but the door frames weren't _that_ low.

Their teacher was waiting there for them, holding a keyring with a single key in front of her. Their teacher, miss Whitewing was a short, slim woman with graying hair and a warm smile.

"Be quick with changing, girls, I expect to start the class on time!" She said.

"We will!" Hollypaw replied confidently, as she grabbed the key.

She opened the locker room, and sat down in the corner. Although the whole place looked new, shiny and pretty, it was obvious that it wasn't intended for such a large group of people, as all the girls barely squeezed into the four benches that were there. There wasn't much talking here

Hollypaw took off blouse and put on the white t-shirt from her kit instead. Then, she removed her skirt, and put on black shorts. She removed her boots and wanted to put on her tennis shoes at last, but she noticed them missing. _I've prepared everything yesterday! Did I forget to put them in my bag?_ Most of the girls were already leaving the locker room.

Hollypaw looked down at her white socks. How stupid it would be if she couldn't participate on the very first day because of something such trivial as this. First day and she already wasn't prepared for her classes . That couldn't have happened.

She left the changing room and headed towards the gym teacher's lounge. The door were open, and inside, in a small room, that was also connected to the gym, was Whitewing, reading newspaper and drinking coffee.

She turned her head towards Hollypaw.

"Is there any problem?"

Hollypaw dropped her sight. She didn't want to disappoint her teacher.

"Uh, it's just... That I forgot my shoes for change."

Whitewing went back to her newspaper.

"Oh, don't worry. It's no problem. It won't affect your grade."

Hollypaw felt wronged by her comment. Not because it was unfair - it was too fair. But it just seemed like Whitewing didn't care if her students participated in her classes. But Hollypaw felt it wasn't her place to tell her teacher that.

"Um... Miss Whitewing. I would still want to practice, if I can." She asked. She wanted to make the good impression on her teachers.

The teacher didn't even look at her this time.

"If you want to."

There didn't seem to be a point to further conversation. Hollypaw went back to the changing room, sat down, and slipped her socks off. She was pleased that they were still clean white - the school was very clean, and that cleanness made her happy. But as she pressed her bare feet against the cold tiles, she began to miss her old school, and its heated floor in the changing room.

She took the opportunity and looked at her toenails - she couldn't imagine not maintaining her hygiene properly and leaving them awful, but it never hurt to check. They were trimmed neatly, as she expected. She quickly scanned her fingernails, too, and they were flawless as well, though only now she realized that she was one of the few girls in the class that didn't paint them.

The gym was fairly uneventful. After the warm-up they played some volleyball. She used to play it in the grade school, and although she was quite rusty other girls didn't seem to care about the game much. Point after point, Hollypaw ended up crushing the enemy team. After the class was over, Whitewing stopped Hollypaw to congratulate her on her skills. _That's what I live for,_ Hollypaw thought.

Hollypaw went back to locker room and started dressing back to her normal clothes. Just as she wanted to put her socks and boots back on, she realized she couldn't find her boots. _Have I left them in the gym teachers' lounge?_ She went back there, and with doors open, and no teacher inside, she entered it and took a look. But they weren't there. Hollypaw felt blood pulsing in her head and she felt her breaths coming very quickly. _Just check one more time. They must be in the changing room_. The last of the girls was leaving the changing room for the next class. Hollypaw remained alone, frantically looking for her boots. They weren't in the changing room. _Maybe someone put them somewhere else as a prank_. But they weren't in the shower, and not in bathroom either. She felt shivering out of all this stress. She quickly checked her backpack and pockets, if anything else was missing, but it looked like nothing else was taken. _Someone must have taken them by accident_. She took a look at her phone - her class was about to start! She ran out to her class, as the bell rang.

While the gym floor was very clean, the rest of the school wasn't as clean. With each step, she felt the dirt on her feet and it made her feel repulsed. With the class almost starting there were barely any people in the hallway, but she was sure they were staring at her like at some loon. She arrived just as her classmates were entering the class. She ran in and took position at her desk.

It didn't take long for Brackenfur to pass around locker codes, papers to fill for students absent on the previous day, and check the attendance. Hollypaw found it hard to concentrate, she knew everyone was staring at her and thinking how stupid she is for sitting barefoot in class. She just wanted the day to be over.

"I wanted to do this yesterday, but too many people were absent. From now on, I hope you will have perfect attendance." Brackenfur said to the class, which responded with a burst of laughter.

"I'd like every one of you to come to the middle of classroom and tell us something about yourself. Let's start with... Hollypaw." A wave of cold went through her. She knew she would be first, with alphabetic order sorted by names of their fathers, and only then by their names.

"Come, and tell us something about yourself, Hollypaw." Teacher said, pointing his hand at the elevated area in front of the blackboard.

She felt the attention of the whole classroom on her. She stood up and walked to the heightened center of the classroom. She suddenly recalled what Jaypaw told her the other day. The trail of senses. She felt like she was on it right now. With each step, she recognized a different feeling. Unease. Embarrassment. Humiliation. Shame. Everyone was staring at her, and she could notice the kids whispering between themselves. With a corner of her eye she noticed Lionpaw slamming his head on the desk. All these eyes looking at her overwhelmed her forcing her to drop her sight. It felt fairly natural to be barefoot in a gym - but in a classroom it felt horribly wrong. And with all the dirt, she felt disgusting. The teacher was writing something, and wasn't paying much attention, but he still signalled "go ahead".

She felt vulnerable and exposed, and she wanted it done as quickly as possible. Maybe someone won't notice.

"Umm... I... I... I'm. Hollypaw." She started to stutter from all this stress.

"I li-like to read" She added quietly.

"Yeah, her favourite book is the Hobbit!" A shout came out from the class, and everyone started laughing. Hollypaw wished she could disappear. The laughter lasted for the whole eternity, and Hollypaw wondered if she was dead by the time it died out.

"Miss Hollypaw." The teacher said sternly.

"Y-yes?" She didn't dare to look at him. She would probably break down completely if she did.

"I know our school is not particularly restrictive in our dress code..." He started. She knew where it was going. She felt tears at the corners of her eyes. She took a few deep breaths. _Just don't cry. Don't cry._

"... But we do require everyone to wear shoes. Do you understand?"

"Yes, b-but..." She started and her mind was whirling. She didn't know how to explain herself, and she realised she was sounding hysterical.

"I'm sorry, t-this won't happen again." She said, barely holding tears back.

"All right, sit down."

It was much more difficult avoiding the mocking stares of her classmates as she went back. _Just ignore it. Ignore it all._ But it was easier said than done.

"Jaypaw now. Are you and Hollypaw siblings?"

It was Jaypaw who replied. "Yes. Me, Hollypaw and Lionpaw are triplets."

"Interesting. Would you prefer to tell us about yourself from the place you are now?"

"I'm blind, not paralyzed." Hollypaw could hear some murmurs from the class as he said that. Maybe not everyone has noticed his disability by now, but it was hard to miss it when Jaypaw said it so brashly.

Jaypaw made a few steps toward the center.

"Watch out for the ste-" Brackenfur tried to warn, but it was too late. Jaypaw tripped on an elevation and with a smash fell to the ground, causing another eruption of laughter from the class.. Brackenfur jumped out of his seat and ran to Jaypaw, helping him stand up.

"Are you okay?" The teacher asked.

Jaypaw lowered his eyebrows. "I'm fine. Let's get over with it. Hi, I'm Jaypaw and I have nothing more to say."

Brackenfur opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it the very next second. He returned back to his seat, and checked the attendance list.

"Lionpaw now. Please come, and tell us something about yourself.

* * *

Lionpaw left his seat. After the show his siblings made, he knew that he was finished. _Why do I have so stupid family?_ On his way to the blackboard, he could hear a whisper. "I wonder what's wrong with this one. I think he's gay." Lionpaw turned around, trying to find out who said that. It was some short, scrawny guy with glasses. Lionpaw bared his teeth at him. He would remember this.

There wasn't much of interest in the during rest of the class, but he learned that the guy who made up that rumor was named Mousepaw. The bell finally rang, and Lionpaw left as soon as he could. He waited for Foxpaw, who fortunately was his classmate, to leave too, but Holly approached him first. He didn't know what she was doing, but he was sure it was some sort of activism. At first he tried to figure out what she was protesting for - Poverty in Africa? Women's Right in India? Treatment of Syrian Refugees? But he realised that he didn't really care. As long as it didn't get as obnoxious as her vegan phase.

"What do you want?" Lionpaw barked. "Didn't you ruin my reputation enough?"

Holly bowed her head. "Listen, Lionpaw. Don't tell parents about what happened today, okay?"

Lionpaw felt a vein popping on his forehead. "Why shouldn't I do that? You never hesitated to snitch on me or Jay. Now you want your ass covered?"

"Just... Please." She said, still looking at the ground.

"Let's make a deal. I will cover your ass, and you will cover mine and Jay's. That are my terms, take them or go away."

Holly turned away. "Fine." She said.

Lionpaw didn't even get what the big deal was. Sure, she was stupid, but their parents were used to Holly's weird ideas for activism. But if she kept her word, then maybe he could finally have some freedom.

"You made the right choice. Now go away, I don't want to be seen with you."

She left him, and he was still waiting for Foxpaw. He must have stayed in the classroom to discuss something with Brackenfur. After a long while, he joined Lionpaw.

"Family can be such an embarrassment. I'm happy I'm not in class with my sister." Foxpaw said.

"She can't be as dumb as Holly."

"You would be surprised." He said. "It's like the science rule - Law of conservation of coolness." He added, raising his index finger. "In each family, there's only one cool person."

Lionpaw knew there was something to it.

"Anyway, I need you for something. Mousepaw needs to be made an example of. Gather the guys." Lionpaw ordered.

Foxpaw smiled. "Sure thing."

* * *

Jaypaw was standing in the hallway with a sheet of paper in his hand. All the clanking of the lockers around irritated him greatly, especially since he had no way to read his own locker number and code. He should have probably just asked Brackenfur to tell him what they were, but he was too humiliated by tripping to think straight, so now he had to stand there helplessly, waiting for someone to help him.

"Hey Jay!" A familiar voice called him.

"What is it?"

"I've made a deal with Holly. She'll keep shut about what happens in the school if we'll cover for her."

 _That's good_. Jaypaw couldn't understand why it took so long for her to show some sibling solidarity, but he was happy that she finally did. If parents have heard about him tripping, they would make him carry his cane to school, and that's not something Jaypaw wanted to do.

"Hey, Lionpaw, could you tell me my locker number and code?" He said, passing his sheet of paper.

"Sure, number 121, code 747. It's the locker next to the rightmost one in this hallway. I've got some things to do. See ya!" Lionpaw said, leaving Jaypaw alone.

By lack of metal sounds, Jaypaw figured out that most people were already done stuffing all their things into their lockers. Jaypaw moved closer to lockers and kept walking next to them, until he found the rightmost one. Then he made a half step left, and scanned it from the top, until he could find the combination lock. With it in his hands, he moved the knob, trying to enter the code. Steps between different numbers were big enough that he was sure that he inserted the right one. Seven, four, seven. Yet it still wouldn't budge. _Maybe I have to enter them counter-clockwise_. That would be a stupid design choice, but it's a shitty school, so maybe they could only afford cheap crap like this. He moved the knob to the left this time, but it still remained locked. _Lionpaw better have not pranked me._

Then, he felt a great force push him in the back. It was so unexpected that he couldn't do anything but let his forehead crash with the locker. "Shit!" He exclaimed. It hurt like hell. He was so dizzy, he could barely tell where he was, or what was going on. He knew there was a hand on the back of his neck, keeping his face next to the locker.

"What the fuck are you doing with my locker?" An angry voice from behind asked.

"Your locker? It's mine." Jaypaw tried to explain himself.

The grip on his neck tightened, and his head was moved back a bit and then it crashed into the locker again. A piercing pain flashed through his nose.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Jaypaw yelped, trying to free himself.

Whoever was gripping him, let him go, but all out of all this pain, Jaypaw fell down to his knees.

"It's my locker, moron. If I ever see you touching it again, you will regret it."

Jaypaw has already regretted touching it.

"But... isn't it locker 121?" Jaypaw asked, hoping to clarify some things.

"No? It's 120. Mine locker. 121 is the one on the bottom. Are you fucking blind or something?"

Oh, so the lockers were doubled. _Screw Lionpaw for not telling me that_.

"I am blind, yeah. Sorry for touching your locker. That won't happen again" Jaypaw said, not feeling sorry at all, but didn't want to push the guy further.

"What are you doing away from the freak show? Here, let me help you." Jaypaw felt the guy's hand on his neck again, but the grip wasn't as tight as before.

He started to push him down the corridor for what seemed like eternity to Jaypaw. He still felt confused after his facial encounter with the locker, and his attempts to massage his forehead with his hand didn't seem to help much.

"There you go. Freak show. Now you can't tell that Breezepaw doesn't have a soft spot for people like you." He said.

If that was his soft spot, Jaypaw didn't want to find out Breezepaw's rough spot.

"Thanks." He said, hoping that Breezepaw would leave him alone, which thankfully he did. As Jaypaw's pain and confusion went away, he figured out where he was. In front of class 105, the integration class. Or as he now learned as others called it, the freak show.

* * *

Lionpaw jumped through the fence off the school territory. It was a lunch break, and he hoped that no one would notice that he was missing. Owlpaw and Foxpaw said that they knew some trusted people in the school - and he needed their help to sort things out with Mousepaw. He dared to call Lionpaw gay, and although Lionpaw had nothing against gays, Mousepaw obviously meant it as an insult - and Lionpaw couldn't let the nerd get away with insulting him. Nerds had to know their place. Lionpaw swiftly moved to the alley behind the school, where they all agreed to meet. The alley seemed like a good place to settle things like this, it was secluded, hard to see from the main street, and absent of people.

Lionpaw arrived first at the place, but it wasn't long before Foxpaw came with some other guy.

"Hey Lionpaw. This is Breezepaw. He's cool, too."

Breezepaw was an average size guy, with black hair wearing a tracksuit. Lionpaw shook his hand, and noticed his tight grip. _This guys really wants to look tough._

"Will they bring Mousepaw here?" Lionpaw asked.

"Don't worry, Minnowpaw has a silver tongue." Breezepaw answered.

Five minutes later, Lionpaw could spot Owlpaw, Mousepaw, and three other guys approaching. Mousepaw looked really cheerful, happily talking with others and oblivious to his fate.

"Hey guys." Lionpaw said, as they entered the alley.

"Hey dude." Owlpaw replied. "We've got you him."

Mousepaw was looking around, confused.

"What's going on?" He asked.

All the guys made a circle around Lionpaw and Mousepaw, giving him an arena for the battle.

"You dared to insult me. No one does that and lives." Lionpaw growled at Mousepaw, baring his teeth.

Mousepaw's eyes widened, and he made a turn on his heel, and strode out. But he only made a few steps, as Owlpaw and Breezepaw grabbed him by the arms and threw him back into the circle.

"What a little rat." Breezepaw spat with contempt. "Can't even defend himself."

"I didn't do anything! Really!" Mousepaw said, shrinking back.

"Can't even admit to it, huh?" Lionpaw said, hating the little weasel. But lies wouldn't help him here.

With a swift move, Lionpaw reached for Mousepaw's glasses. He raised his arms to defend himself, but it was too late to stop Lionpaw from grabbing them. Lionpaw lost his grip, and the glasses fell on the ground. He then crunched them under his shoe and screwed his foot around, leaving glass splinters around.

"Wouldn't want to hurt you." Lionpaw hissed.

He grabbed Mousepaw and punched him in the gut, and as Mousepaw bent down from the pain, Lionpaw hit his face with knee.

"Screw you, loser." Lionpaw said as he tossed Mousepaw to the ground and kicked his side.

"I give up! Let me live, I beg you!" Mousepaw said, trembling.

Lionpaw grabbed Mousepaw by his shirt and lifted him up.

"Now listen, you little shit. From now on, you'll do as I say." Lionpaw said. He didn't realize how much stronger he was than an average high schooler, but now that he knew, it felt good. He enjoyed his strength and the terror on Mousepaw's face. The poor kid probably had enough, but to truly punish him, Mousepaw had to be humiliated in front of the class. And Lionpaw just got a good idea on how to do that.

"What I need you to do..."

* * *

"Hey mom. Um... There is a student council meeting today, and I want to join it. I'll be ending the school late today." Hollypaw told her mother through phone. It was a lie, of course, and her heart was pumping because of it. She hated lying to her parents.

"Oh, don't worry sweetie, Jaypaw and Lionpaw can wait for you for a bit, can't they?" Squirrelflight answered.

"It will probably last forever. You know how those school councils are." Hollypaw said, trying to remain composed.

"If you know when it will end, I can drive back for you again."

Hollypaw's spirit plummeted. Her mom would do anything for her, and Hollypaw did nothing, but lie to her.

"I don't want to be a bother. And I don't know when it will end. Really, mom, I'll just take a bus home."

"You already made up your mind, I see. Well, if that's what you want. But if you change your mind, give me a call, and I'll drive up for you! It really won't be a problem."

"Thanks mom. I love you." Hollypaw said and she ended a call.

Hollypaw felt like a hollow shell. Sitting on a toilet, the only place in school which gave her some privacy and protected her from insults and mocking glares. The bottom of her feet were as dark as soot from all the dirt in school, and they hurt horrible from all the hard floor she was forced to walk on. She had enough of being called the hobbit, or a caveman, or being chewed on by the teachers. But she couldn't tell her parents. They were so sceptical of this school in the first place, they would make her transfer if they found out that she was bullied.

She took a bus home a few minutes after the class ended and Squirrelflight took her brothers home. The bus was filthy, but at this point she didn't care. The bus didn't have a good connection with the suburbs she lived in, she had to walk a good twenty minutes back home. Every step on a pavement was a torture, but she kept going, knowing that it's not that far away. She sneaked into her home and avoiding her parents, went upstairs to take a shower. It didn't help much. She may have been technically clean, but she still felt filthy. Opening the door to her room, she fell on her bed, her sanctuary, and planting her face into the pillow she finally dared to let the tears out.


	5. Chapter 4

Hollypaw dragged herself through the corridor the the locker room. Hearing the girls' voices made her shudder, afraid of what they would say. She hoped that Whitewing would let her skip the class, she didn't have her shoes for change anyway. She thought she had simply forgot to put them in her bag yesterday, but she couldn't find them anywhere at home. Someone must have taken them at school, just like they did with her boots later. She had to come to school in her old pair of sneakers today, and they were horribly worn out.

Hollypaw went past the locker room and to gym teacher's lounge. Whitewing was sitting there with her newspaper and a cup of coffee. Hollypaw wondered if that was some sort of morning ritual for her. The teacher turned her head to face Hollypaw with attention.

"Hello. I already gave the girls the key to the locker room, didn't I?" She asked, looking a bit confused.

"I... Umm... I'm having that time of the month and it's pretty bad. Could I skip the class today?" Something stung inside Hollypaw. _Since when do I handle all my problems by lying?_

Whitewing folded the newspaper and threw it on the table.

"Of course! I know it can be hard and you definitely shouldn't overextend yourself."

"Thank you."

Whitewing stood up and made a few steps towards Hollypaw. "I can see that you are a very ambitious girl, and that it hurts you to skip the classes. But you shouldn't feel bad, there's a time for work, and the time for rest. You shouldn't push yourself too hard!"

Hollypaw just kept feeling worse and worse for lying, with all the concern her teacher has been showing.

Whitewing turned around and approached her table.

"Maybe I should make you some green tea? It will make you feel better."

"Thank you... But there's no need."

"Do you need some tampons?" Whitewing kept trying to help, and it all hurt her more than the insults yesterday.

"I'll better go back to other girls. Thank you again." Hollypaw did a quick bow with her head, and went to the locker room.

As she entered it, all the eyes turned on her, and the locker room went quiet. Most of the girls were already changed into their gym clothes, but few were still changing.

"Oh, hey there, caveman." Heatherpaw welcomed her mockingly.

Hollypaw didn't have any classes with Heatherpaw except for this one, but rumors travel fast, and she should have expected that Heatherpaw wouldn't miss the opportunity to mock her. But Hollypaw didn't want to give her satisfaction. She just sat down on the edge of the bench and ignored the insult.

"What? You're not changing? The class is about to start, you know. You wouldn't want to miss it, would you?"

Hollypaw kept silent.

"Maybe you want us to leave? I understand that. It must be humiliating undressing, being so flat chested." Hollypaw felt her ears getting hot. She knew she didn't have the biggest of breasts, but she didn't know why it really mattered here.

Two girls sitting next to Heatherpaw started giggling in the most stereotypical teenage girl way possible.

"Don't worry, maybe they will get bigger. But to give you a good advice - you should stop trying to fatten them up - your stretch marks are already ugly enough." More girls joined the giggle.

"I swear - did you see them?" Heatherpaw asked the girl sitting next to her. "I nearly puked yesterday when I saw them." Heatherpaw continued.

Hollypaw rushed out of her bench and stood just few inches in front of Heatherpaw.

"What's. Your. Problem?" She hissed through gritted teeth.

Heatherpaw gave her a clueless look.

"I don't have any problem, honey." Heatherpaw said, putting her hands on Hollypaw's shoulders. "But you should start working on your problems." She gave her a wink and pushed Hollypaw aside.

"And now excuse me, I don't want to be late." The girls started leaving, following Heatherpaw. Just as Hazelpaw was passing through the door, she turned her head around, and looked at Hollypaw. She looked uneasy, and for a second Hollypaw thought she wanted to tell Hollypaw something. But just then Icepaw approached Hazelpaw and told her to go with the rest of the girls.

* * *

Lionpaw and Breezepaw were standing in the middle of the hallway, just as nerds around them tried to rush to their next classes.

"Mousepaw didn't show up today." Lionpaw told his friend.

"Chill. He probably spent the whole day crying like a baby he is. He will show up sooner or later." Breezepaw smiled. "In fact, it may be for the better."

Lionpaw shot hit a doubtful look. "How so?"

"I've talked with Heatherpaw, and she and her girls could help us. You'll really like her plan."

Lionpaw listened carefully. It would be humiliating - far more than what Lionpaw originally planned, and the fact that Mousepaw wouldn't expect that would traumatize him even more. But just then, Lionpaw felt a prickle of doubt. Isn't that too fucked up?

"She and her girls will handle that, if you don't mind. We'll just continue with our things." Breezepaw offered.

Lionpaw nodded. "All right." He had far less doubts knowing that he wouldn't have to personally do that.

"Oh, and that Heatherpaw... Is she your girlfriend?" Lionpaw asked.

Breezepaw shook his head.

"Used to be. But bitch's crazy, I tell you." Lionpaw could believe that, after hearing her plan.

"We're still friends. I have some contacts, she trades in some good stuff. There's no point in holding grudges over the past." Breezepaw continued.

"I think you should meet her. Listen, my parents won't be home this weekend, and I'll be making a party. Will you show up this Saturday? All the cool people are in."

"Sure thing." Lionpaw answered. That would be his chance.

* * *

Hollypaw was sitting alone in the cafeteria. It was for the better - she knew that the girls shunned her, the only boy she knew, Fallen Leaves, didn't show up in the school aside from the inauguration, and her brothers would view her sitting at their table as an insult. She wasn't even hungry, she sat there drinking mineral water, waiting for the time to pass, but the lunch break lasted forever.

"Hey, is this seat free?" Hazelpaw asked. Hollypaw looked up, not believing that someone would want to sit with her. Hazelpaw put her tray on the table and sat down without waiting for answer.

"Sure." Hollypaw replied. She tried to remember if Hazelpaw was laughing at her before with the other girls, but the memory alone made her shudder with anxiety. _Better not dwell on it._

"Great. Hey, listen." Hazelpaw nervously looked around. "Umm, do you understand trig? I heard that Brackenfur makes very difficult tests and I just can't get it."

Hollypaw's spirit plummeted. Of course, that was the only thing she was needed for. Hard homework, someone to copy the test from, or explaining the classes.

"Okay." Hollypaw answered. She felt that Hazelpaw would throw her under the bus for any reason, but Hollypaw's inner need to help others overtook her.

"Just tell me... Why does Heatherpaw pick on me?" She asked.

Hazelpaw planted her sight into her lunch.

"I don't know. Listen, I'm really sorry about what happened. She's... cruel. And that's not fair."

"I went to junior high with her, and she was always like that. Everyone's scared of her." Hazelpaw continued.

"That's a really shitty advice... But the only one I can give you that works. Don't stand up to her. She'll get bored and find someone else to pick on, eventually."

Hollypaw just couldn't listen to that.

"What? You know what? I have enough of that, I should go tell the teach-"

Hazelpaw's eyes went wide open and she leaned forward towards Hollypaw.

"Quiet! Don't say that out loud." Hazelpaw said shaken. "You don't know what you are doing."

"You think I should just let them treat me like that?" Hollypaw asked in disbelief.

"It is the best way. Let me explain, please!" Hollypaw was scared seeing Hazelpaw terrified like that. _She knew Heatherpaw for a long time._

"You know how they say 'Snitches get stiches?' Well, Heatherpaw does treat that seriously. As do other groups in school. They have some loose rules, they call them the Code. I don't know the details, I was never 'in' the group, but I have heard about it. Like, no boy from will do anything particularly bad to you, because of the Code. Heatherpaw treats you like shit, but you are under her protection, since you are a girl." Hazelpaw made a small break to take a few breaths. "But if you tell on them, then you are outside the Code, and must be punished. And then everything's a fair game. And if you think you have it bad, you haven't seen what the boys did to my brother yesterday." Hazelpaw started sobbing.

"Hollypaw." Hazelpaw grabbed her hand. "Please don't do anything stupid."

 _What is going on here?_ Hollypaw thought. This... This couldn't be real.

Hazelpaw looked straight into Hollypaw's eyes, and she could she the fear she hasn't seen before.

"Give me your phone number." Hazelpaw said. "If I find out that they want to do something... bad, I'll warn you, okay? That's the most I can do. But please, don't try to be a hero."

* * *

Jaypaw was sitting on the bench, waiting for the PE to start. That was the only class he had with the Freak Show, which he found incredibly annoying, but at least he wasn't the worst in the class thanks to that. He didn't shine either, but he knew he was to blame for his lack of fitness, not his blindness.

"Hey, is that the Integration class?" Some young, incredibly cheerful voice asked. Jaypaw wanted to smash his head against the wall, because he knew only one type of person could be happy about being with cripples - a therapist.

"Yea." Answered, wanting it to be over.

"Great! I was worried that everyone would be already buddy-buddy and I would be alone because I missed the first few days, but I see that I can still befriend mr Grumpy!" Jaypaw felt confused, and not only because the girl was talking so fast.

"Oh, you're a student?" He asked.

"Of course, silly! You thought I was a teacher?" She asked, amused.

Jaypaw sighed.

"So, what's wrong with you?" Jaypaw asked.

"What? Nothing's wrong with me! Is that how you say 'hello' to each other around?" She answered.

"Well, it is the Freak Show." Jaypaw answered.

"Then it's my place!" She replied happily. Her eagerness made Jaypaw feel nauseous. "I'm a freak, sometimes crazy, but always awesome! You can call me Cinderpaw."

"And what's wrong with you? "Jaypaw reiterated his question.

"Like, I'm blind, Briarpaw's on a wheelchair, those two girls have bad asthma, Snowpaw's deaf..."

"Is that what you care about the most?" She asked, but Jaypaw just hissed in reply.

"All right, I broke my leg during the summer, and still haven't recovered completely. Now, your name, grumpy."

 _She's so annoying._

"I'm Jaypaw." He grumbled.

"Hey, I have an idea! Could you introduce me to other classmates?" She said enthusiastically, as she hung her arms around Jaypaw's neck, making him shiver.

"I barely know them myself." He answered.

Cinderpaw clapped. "That's even better! We'll get to know the people together."

Jaypaw sighed. She really wouldn't leave him alone. Jaypaw stood up, as he understood that it may be faster to just do what she said than argue with her.

* * *

Hollypaw stood naked in front of the mirror in the bathroom at home. She tried to deny that Heatherpaw's words had affected her in any way, but she knew she couldn't. It just brought the old fears back. Heatherpaw's only said what she said to hurt Hollypaw, and she knew it, but it was hard to dismiss the insults when they were true. Hollypaw knew she wasn't ugly - hardly a model, but she didn't care about that.

She stared at her breasts for long time. They were small. She knew seventh graders who were less flat than her. _Is it some kind of deformity?_ She travelled down her body with her eyes. She could see the stretch marks on her hips. She has always assumed they were caused by her rapid growth during the puberty, but maybe that was wishful thinking. And the more she looked at them, the more repulsed she was by the view. _They're disgusting._ She moved her hand around her waist. It did feel like it was thicker and softer than she remembered. Maybe she really was fat. _When did that happen? I didn't eat that much. I exercised regularly._ Hollypaw punched the wall. _How could I do this to myself?_

* * *

 _A/N: So much Hollypaw in this (short) chapter. But Lion and Jay will get some action soon!_


	6. Chapter 5

Hollypaw was looking through the window, waiting for the class to start. It was Friday - the school would be over today for some time. She never quite understood why the kids have said that they hated school and waited for the weekend - until now. It was the last day she she could use her excuse not to participate in PE classes and she knew she had to come back and face Heatherpaw. She shuddered at the thought of what that mean girl could come up with to further humiliate her. Her mind whirled back to the conversation with Hazelpaw a few days ago - how much of it was true? Maybe it was all part of Heatherpaw's plan to scare Hollypaw into silence. But the look of terror on Hazelpaw's face was so genuine... And Hollypaw hasn't seen Mousepaw, Hazelpaw's brother, since the second day. Did the boys really do something to him?

Her worries would have to wait - Brackenfur lazily entered the class, causing all the conversations to die out, and slowly paced toward his desk. He looked through his notepad, flipping a few pages, after which he stood up and looked at the class.

"Did you all do your homework?"

Hollypaw nodded, and the chorus of affirmative murmurs joined her. Brackenfur asked this every single day and had never yet checked their homework, so she doubted the sincerity of many of the voices in the class.

Brackenfur nodded slowly and a faint smile appeared on his face. "That's good. That's very good." He said, scratching his chin.

"I'm confident in your skills, which is why I've prepared an exam for today. It's an easy A for all of you." He said, reaching out for exams from his briefcase.

The class started moaning, but Hollypaw simply took out her lucky pen, and prepared for writing. She has studied and did all her homework, so it shouldn't be a problem. She glanced sideways at Jaypaw, who had his face planted at his desk, and wondered how he is going to take it. But she didn't have time for thinking, as Brackenfur landed the exam in front of her. She wrote her name at the top and proceeded to check the questions. The exam was massive, with ten set of problems in it, each of which had at least three problems. _I've taken finals that were shorter than that!_

" _Given sin x = 1/9, find tan x._ " She read the question and scratched her head. She didn't remember anything like that in the homework problems. Or it being explained in the class. She looked up, seeing her teacher passing around the last copies of the test.

"Um, Sir?" She asked, scratching her neck in embarrassment.

"Yes, miss Hollypaw? Is something unclear?" Brackenfur.

"Does this count for our final grade?"

Brackenfur sat down behind his desk.

"Yes, as much as any other exam you will take."

Hollypaw shook her head. _Okay, you don't know how to tackle one problem, no big deal. Just concentrate on problems that you can solve._

Hollypaw looked at the next problem.

" _Given a triangle shown in the picture, find the missing angles and sides of the triangle. Calculate the area of the triangle_."

 _How. How in earth can I do that. We only did the right triangles in the class, and this is just a random one!_

She closed her eyes and took a few breaths, but she didn't feel any more relaxed. Time was running. She decided to look at all the questions before attempting to answer any - and her heart plummeted with each following one. Some questions she didn't even understand, some she had no idea how to do. She recalled some from the homework, but couldn't remember how to do them. Her hands started to shake.

She rubbed her eyes, and looked at the exam again - but the questions remained the same.

* * *

"All right, so today I want us to do some group work. I'll split you into groups of three, and you will make a short presentation on a social problem of your choice. You will have to convince me, and the rest of the class why your problem is the most important one." Graystripe announced.

"So, let's start with the groups... Jaypaw, you will be with Kestrelpaw and Cinderpaw."

 _Great. That girl-that's-so-cheerful-that-I-want-to-puke and some guy I don't know._

"I knew we would be together!" He could barely turn to the side before hearing her annoying voice.

"Yeah, awesome." Jaypaw said dryly.

"You're Jaypaw, right?" Some male voice asked.

"Kestrelpaw, I assume? Let's sit down and get to work." Jaypaw said, annoyed. He didn't really wanted to work on this lame assignment, but sitting around and talking with those guys was far worse alternative.

"How did your math exam look like?" Cinderpaw asked.

Of course she would be curious, and of course she had to be with him in the math class. He was with Cinderpaw in every single class. He couldn't wait for electives, freeing him from her.

"None of your business."

Jaypaw felt a sharp stab on his shoulder.

"Stop poking me with your finger!" He said to Cinderpaw.

She did it again. And again. And again.

"Not until you answer my question!" She said, giggling, and still poking him.

"Fine. I had to stay after class, and he asked me some questions about the class material. Happy!?"

"Yes!" She answered with a clap. "Or wait, no. How did you do?"

"Don't know, don't care. Can we start working?" He said.

A few books loudly landed on the desk.

"Sorry." Kestrelpaw said. "So, what's our to-?"

"I'm not coming up with the idea, and I'm not writing down our plan." Cinderpaw jumped in mid sentence.

"In that case, I'm not writing it down either! You do it, Jaypaw." Kestrelpaw added, sounding happy with himself.

Jaypaw sighed annoyed.

"I'm blind, dumbass. I can't write."

"If you can't write that's illiteracy, not blindness." Kestrelpaw corrected him.

Jaypaw facepalmed. He didn't have words for that guy.

"You tell him." He said to Cinderpaw.

"He's really blind you know. Like a mole." She said, obviously amused.

"You mean, like, legally blind?" Kestrelpaw asked.

 _Man, was he dense._

Jaypaw slammed his hands on the desk. "She means that I can't see shit!" He yelled, hoping to get his point across.

"Please watch your language!" Graystripe chided from across the room. "And keep your voice down. You're not the only one working here!"

"Sorry." Jaypaw muttered under his breath.

"Okay, okay, I'll be writing!" Kestrelpaw replied defensively. "But what we'll be writing about?"

"Don't look at me, I said that I'm not coming up with the idea." Cinderpaw said.

"Are you going to do anything at all today?" Jaypaw growled.

She didn't reply for a few moments. "If you ask me nicely!"

Jaypaw fell on the desk, resigned. "Just... kill me."

"You're a genius, Jaypaw! We can surely say that suicide is a big societal problem." Kestrelpaw said.

Jaypaw was still lying on his desk, those two exhausting him completely.

"Problem? With you around, it feels like a solution."

* * *

Lionpaw was at his locker picking up his books for an upcoming English class. The school was halfway over for the day, and all he could think about was the next day party at Breezepaw's.

"Lionpaw, did you write an essay for miss Yellowfang?" Foxpaw, standing nearby, asked.

"Wasn't it due for the next week?" Asked puzzled. He was pretty sure it was, but he still opened his notebook to check.

"No, it's definitely due today. Umm, more like due in 10 minutes. I hoped I could copy it off you."

"Damn!" Lionpaw replied, flipping the pages. _It was for today._ "So, what do we do now?"

"Eh, dunno. Find some nerd?"

Lionpaw slammed his locker shut.

 _I'm almost out of time._ Lionpaw thought, looking around. Jaypaw was in class with him, but he didn't have anything to copy from anyway. Breezepaw... Well, he'd rather be missing homework than show what Breezepaw has written. Then he checked his left.

He only recognized one girl, who was currently at her locker. Honeypaw? Hazelpaw? Well, he wasn't sure, but it started with an 'H'. _Well, that will have to suffice_. As he approached her, he could feel the thick, sweet smell, somewhat reminding him of roses. She had long, straight blonde hair, and was wearing a yellow spaghetti strap dress, which exposed her shoulders. There was something eye-catching in them, whether it was smooth, fair skin, or their perfect roundness, Lionpaw couldn't resist looking at them.

"Hey, Honeypaw." Lionpaw gambled with this one. But he liked living on the edge.

"Wha-" She started, but she stopped as she turned her sparkling, blue eyes on Lionpaw, and stared at him with an open mouth.

"Hey, are you okay?" Lionpaw asked, turning his head sideways.

She covered her mouth with her hand.

"You remember my name?" She muttered wide-eyed.

"Yea. It'd be hard to forget you." Lionpaw added, smiling.

She shook her head and assumed a normal posture, with a nervous smile on her face.

"Sorry, you took me by surprise. Umm, so..." She said, still staring weirdly.

"Hey, listen, I left my essay for miss Yellowfang at home. Could I borrow yours for a second?" He asked, leaning towards her, and breathing in her sweet perfume.

Immediately she took out two sheets of paper out of her notebook, and passed them to Lionpaw.

"Sure, I hate when that happens! Just return it to me before the class." She said, with a forced laughter at the end.

"Yea, it does. I owe you a favour now!" He said with a wink.

With an essay, he ran back to his locker, knowing how little time he had to copy it down.

But once he got there, he couldn't resist to look at Honeypaw one more time.

* * *

This whole day left Hollypaw exhausted. And now, she was sitting alone at the cafeteria, just like every other day. She tried to satisfy her hunger by drinking juice, but it didn't seem to be working. But she was willing to suffer to lose some weight.

A very short girl with dark brown, braided hair limped to Hollypaw's table.

"Hey, is this seat free?" She asked.

"I guess." Hollypaw answered, turning her sight to her bottle of juice.

"Great! I hate sitting alone. It's always better to have someone to share one's woes with, eh?" She said.

"Yeah." Hollypaw replied, resigned.

"You're Hollypaw, right? Not sure if you've noticed me during the math class - I'm easy to miss!" She said, playfully letting her tongue out for a second.

"But that has its own advantages." She said, leaning in.

"No one expects me to be evil." She cracked her knuckles. "And this means I'm free to do my evil plots!" She laughed.

"You're... Cinderpaw, right? How did math go for you?" Hollypaw asked.

Cinderpaw clapped. "Yes, I am! And as for as that math exam..." she paused to scratch her chin in a Brackenfur fashion. "Let's say that my absences in this week didn't help me." Her face fell flat for a second, but was back to her smile a moment later. "But you must have done well, I saw you writing furiously during the exam."

Hollypaw took another sip of juice. "We'll see." She want to talk about her failure.

Cinderpaw twined her fingers in front of her face. "You're a reserved one, huh? Great, I love figuring out other people's secrets." Cinderpaw laughed.

Cinderpaw gave Hollypaw a mischievous look. "You need to give me an opportunity for that. I'm really good at prying." She said, pulling out her phone.

"Give me your phone number, and let's have some fun together tomorrow?" Cinderpaw asked.

Hollypaw warmed up. It felt nice having someone make an effort to know her.

"Sure, but I've got to go mall tomorrow." Hollypaw said. She had to get new shoes, because she didn't want to walk around with those old sneakers all year. And she also needed new shoes for gym.

"Let's hang out at the mall, then! Lots of cool places to visit there. Just let me know when you'll be there."

"Will do." Hollypaw smiled, as she exchanged numbers with Cinderpaw.

And for the first time in quite a long time, she felt that maybe everything will turn out all right.


	7. Chapter 6

Jaypaw hated eating dinner with his family. He thought it was a completely unnecessary relic of the old times. More than anything, he hated his mother's probing questions.

"So, Jaypaw, have You met any fun kids?" She asked. Jaypaw remembered Hollypaw and Lionpaw being asked questions like that, too. When they were in the first grade.

"Yeah, fun as dope." He said, hoping he would get his mom awkward.

"I'm mostly sticking with Kestrelpaw." He added. That was the opposite of the truth - he wanted to stay as far away from the guy, but he wouldn't leave him alone.

"Mhm." Squirrelflight murmured. "And the rest of the kids? Do they treat you..." She hung her voice, without finishing. This was what this conversation was all about from the start, but she couldn't just get to the point.

"Yeah, normally. I can't see the difference." He said. Vision jokes were something that he believed was reserved only for him, and he used them liberally to discomfort his parents.

He picked up his fork and took another bite of lasagne. His father cooked on weekends, and while he usually was nothing special, his lasagne was excellent.

Jaypaw heard Brambleclaw clear his throat.

"I've been thinking that maybe we should visit your grandparents today. Does anyone have some other plans for this evening?"

Jaypaw sighed. They were visiting Firestar and Sandstorm like every other week. And of course, there were very few things that would excuse him from going to yet another visit.

"I'm having an all-night study session with some dudes." Lionpaw said. He usually had some excuse, but this one was so stupid only their parents could believe it. _Oh well_ , it would be just him and Hollypaw, just like usual.

"Umm... I'd love to go, but I promised to hang out with a friend." Hollypaw said, and Jaypaw's jaw dropped out of surprise. Who's she going out with? Was she really with that boy from the first day? And how did she dare to leave Jaypaw alone with their grandparents!? "And mom, could you drop me off later at the mall?"

"Sure, honey." Squirrelflight replied.

The room got quiet, but Jaypaw knew everyone was looking at him right now. He tried to come up with some excuse, but couldn't come up with anything they would believe him.

"What about you, Jaypaw?" His dad asked.

Jaypaw gave up.

"I'd love to see them! I don't ditch family at every opportunity." He said, directing his comment at his siblings.

But there was one thing he really wanted to say to them.

 _Traitors._

* * *

Hollypaw walked down the hall of her town's mall. Cinderpaw smsed her earlier that she was already in, and Hollypaw wandered around, trying to find her friend. She walked slowly, taking a look at the display windows of the stores she was passing. That wasn't something she usually did, since she thought as shopping as a bother and rarely did she come without a clear idea of what she wanted from this place. It took her a few minutes, but she found Cinderpaw soon enough. As soon as the girl spotted Hollypaw, she ran up to her, limping slightly, and exchanged hugs with Hollypaw.

"I missed you!" Cinderpaw said, pressing her head against Hollypaw's chest.

Hollypaw put the side of her head on top of Cinderpaw's. There was something great in hugging a person a lot shorter than her.

"Good to see you." Hollypaw replied.

Cinderpaw left the embrace and took two steps back.

"How do I look?" Cinderpaw said, and did a slow 360 degree turn.

Her hair were shiny, and obviously well taken care of. She was wearing a beige crop top, had her fingernails painted pink, and had a dark gray miniskirt. She did look cute, but inside, Hollypaw couldn't stop and think about why she was wearing something so exposing. Hollypaw would die of shame if she tried putting something like that on. But she didn't want to worry her friend about all this.

"You look great. Are you going boy-hunting?" She joked.

Cinderpaw's face fell flat, and she gave a Hollypaw a long look before answering.

"No, you see..." She looked down and started kicking the floor.

"I think we're a bit too young to think about boys - I mean it's only my view and it's okay if you disagree!" She started waving her hands in front of her energetically, and gave Hollypaw an apologetic look.

"No, it's okay." Hollypaw said, laughing. "I think the same, actually. It's just the way you dress..." Hollypaw started, but she realized that it sounded wrong. She shouldn't be talking like that to her friend.

Cinderpaw didn't seem to mind. Her eyes brightened, and the smile came back on her face.

She let out a short bout of laughter. "I know what you mean. But it's... - can't a girl look pretty for herself?" She said, and grabbed Hollypaw's hand.

"I know most people assume I do it for the boys' attention, but it's not about it. I just feel so much more confident if I can look into the mirror and say - that's who I want to be. You know?" She said, laughing.

Hollypaw looked at her, and tried to keep her smile on. She wouldn't have minded to look like Cinderpaw - cute and pretty. There were few things Hollypaw wished to not see as much as her own disgusting body.

"Is that why you're not wearing any makeup?" Cinderpaw asked.

Hollypaw nodded in reply.

"Aww, see! You're losing so much. See, you can be a beautie, and still not waste any time on boys." She clicked her tongue.

"You have such bright eyes... You could showcase them a bit, and you'd crush everyone." Cinderpaw said, closely looking at Hollypaw.

"Yes, eyeliner would be a killer on you! We have to have a makeup session at some point." Cinderpaw continued.

Hollypaw wouldn't have considered it at all before, but Cinderpaw made is sound reasonable.

"Sure, I guess I can try. Can I get what I need done first, though?"

"Of course! Lead the way!" Cinderpaw said, jumping around.

They went to the shoe store together. Hollypaw couldn't stop but think how Cinderpaw is acting like a happy bunny, cute and hyperactive. And although it was a complete opposite of Hollypaw's own personality, she really enjoyed her company.

"Shoe shopping?" Cinderpaw asked. "Couldn't get any more stereotypical." She giggled.

Hollypaw walked up to shelves and started looking at the footwear.

"Are you sure you're not the one who wants to go boy-hunting?" Cinderpaw asked.

"Yes, pretty sure!" Hollypaw answered. She spotted a nice pair of black ankle boots about her size and decided to try them on.

She waited until Cinderpaw was looking somewhere else before trying on shoes. She didn't realise until now how self-conscious she got about her feet since that incident. Hollypaw knew that Cinderpaw wouldn't mock her, but it still made her feel uneasy.

The boots fit perfectly, and were very stylish. Hollypaw knew she would take them.

"What do you think?" Hollypaw asked her friend.

Cinderpaw looked at her carefully.

"They're perfect! They fit your style so well." She said.

"I know. Okay, now I need one more pair." Hollypaw said. She needed shoes for gym, too.

Cinderpaw's eyes widened. "Oooooooooh."

"What is it?" Hollypaw asked, unnerved by her sudden's friend reaction.

"Now I understand why others call you a hobbit." Cinderpaw said with a smile.

Hearing that word made Hollypaw tense up. She wanted to say something, dismiss it, joke it off, but there was a lump in her throat and it just wouldn't go away.

"It's an ironic nickname, because you're so tall, right?" She said in jest.

Hollypaw felt she was breathing again. "Yes... Ironic nickname."

* * *

Berrynose dropped Lionpaw in front of Breezepaw's house. Even from up there, he could hear the loud music, and strong vibrations. He must have a nice sound setup.

Lionpaw jumped off his friend's bike and was about to head in there, but he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait a moment, bro." Berrynose stopped him.

"It's about my brother. I know what happened. I have a favour to ask." He said with his motorcycle helmet on.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Lionpaw asked confused.

"Mousepaw, my younger brother. He told me what happened and that he acted like a pussy."

Lionpaw felt awkward. He didn't even realize that he beat up his friend's brother. He didn't think he could forgive someone who would have hurt Jay, and yet, Berrynose here seemed pretty chill about everything so far.

"Could you turn it up a bit?" Berrynose asked. "He needs to toughen up. He's been a pansy for the whole life, and it's about time he learned a lesson. You owe me that for a ride."

Although that was Lionpaw's plan before, it felt strange for such a request to come from his brother.

"Sure thing, bro." Lionpaw said.

Berrynose turned around and drove away.

Lionpaw came in and was surprised that Breezepaw welcomed him in gray undershirt and shorts. Though, it was his place after all.

"Yo dude." Breezepaw said, as they exchanged a bro shake. "We're about to start." He said, though with all the techno in the background, it was pretty hard to hear him.

"You've gotta meet some pals." They went further into the house, and passed two dozens of people on the way. He didn't recognize most of them, except for Owlpaw and Foxpaw, with whom he exchanged a brief greeting. He was surprised at how many girls were there, though again he didn't recognize most of them - and the few he did, only from sight.

Breezepaw led Lionpaw to the living room, and made him sit down in the couch near the table, as he sat down near him. On the opposite side there was a girl with a pierced nostril, wearing a black dress with a revealing, deep neckline, and a guy shorter than her, with impressive muscles. _Must be a bodybuilder._ From the distance between them, Lionpaw figured that they weren't together.

"Heatherpaw, Harepaw, meet Lionpaw." The guy simply nodded, but Hatherpaw leaned in with interest.

Lionpaw couldn't help himself, but stare at her cleavage.

"I've heard a lot of interesting things about you." She said, eyeing him carefully.

"Let's smoke one for a successful party." Breezepaw said.

Lionpaw was confused what was Breezepaw talking about, but then he noticed a bunch of joints lying on the table. Everyone picked one up, and so did Lionpaw.

Breezepaw reached for a lighter and went around the table lighting the joints.

Lionpaw looked at it for a moment with fascination - he's never done done drugs before, and he knew that if his parents learned about this, he'd be fucking dead. But Lionpaw knew how to cover his tracks, so he wasn't particularly worried, and he certainly wanted to try.

Lionpaw put it in his mouth and inhaled lightly. The air following the smoke seemed to flow in more fluidly than usual, and he felt lighter as it floated down his lung. _Feels good_. Then he exhaled it with others.

"Thank Heatherpaw for the good stuff." Breezepaw said.

She shrugged. "If you have cash, I have fun." She said, inhaling a joint again.`

"All right, have some stuff to keep track off. Mind lending me a hand, Harepaw?" Breezepaw said, standing away from the table, and Harepaw followed him in the motion.

Breezepaw leaned in to Lionpaw's ears and whispered. "Guestroom upstairs is open if you feel like doing something more than holding hands." After which he and Harepaw left.

Lionpaw didn't even realize when Heatherpaw had sat dawn next to him. She was looking up at him through her lashes.

"How did you get into it?" Lionpaw said, looking at the joint on the table.

She exhaled the smoke.

"Needed some cash. It pays good and makes people respect you, too. Good business." She said dismissively.

"It's a lot easier when you're a single kid of rich parents who have nothing to do but throw money at you." She said, narrowing her eyes at Breezepaw, who was in the distance. "But it's hard to respect people like that."

"You were together, weren't you?" Lionpaw asked. Again, he couldn't stop himself from looking at her, and he enjoyed what he was seeing from the closer distance.

"We were. But he had issues. And didn't handle them well." She replied, not explaining much. Not that Lionpaw really cared.

"Say what." She licked her lips. "You've been looking at me all this time."

Lionpaw felt he was blushing. He knew he didn't do it with any subtlety, but he still couldn't resist and felt awkward being called out.

Heatherpaw ran her hand through her hair. "Oh, I don't mind. But give me something to look at, too." She said, pressing herself to his arm.

While Lionpaw knew he was moderately athletic, he didn't have a six pack or anything, which made him hesitate a little.

"Don't tell me you're shy?" She said, smiling seductively.

Without a further thought, he grabbed his shirt at the back of his neck, yanked it over his head, and tossed it to the corner of the room.

"Mhm." She murmured. She put a finger at the bottom of her neck, and ran it through his chest, sending shivers through his body.

She threw her hair back, and tilted her head away from him, exposing her neck. He didn't need further invitation, as he pressed his lips against her neck, embracing the warmth of her body.


	8. Chapter 7

Jaypaw was walking the familiar sidewalk with his brother. The surroundings of his home were one of the few places he knew well enough to get around without his cane, which made him visit them even more often - but he felt at times that he was confining himself. They had a fairly clear goal today - or so had their parents believed.

"Feel like going today?" Jaypaw asked.

"Nah." Lionpaw replied.

Going to the church on their own had this very important benefit of not actually having to go there, which they used pretty liberally. With Hollypaw preferring to go with their parents, their secret was safe, too. Even more so now, when she promised to keep quiet. But there was no need for her to even know about it.

"How the 'studying' yesterday went?" Jaypaw asked.

A car passing in front of them sounded its horn, much to Jaypaw's annoyance, but it did reassure him that they were at the intersection, and had to wait for the lights.

"Really fun. Jay, you need to stop spending time with old geezers and find some cool dudes to spend time with."

Jaypaw leaned against the lamppost.

"Yeah, easy for you to say. No one invites me anywhere." Jaypaw answered, shaking his head with disapproval

"And why do you think is that?" He asked as if he didn't know the answer.

"Because I'm blind, you moron." _Duh?_

Lionpaw sighed.

"I thought that with so many people of my age around I could find someone who wouldn't treat me like a leper."

Jaypaw could hear the sound coming from the lights, signalling that they went green. He waited a second to make sure that no car was coming and crossed the road.

"You're just a noob at this. All the other peeps - they've been playing this games for their whole life." Lionpaw retorted.

Jaypaw really hated when his brother used gaming lingo - and he wasn't sure if he'd even want gaming advice from Lionpaw, considering how much swears he heard when his sibling was playing his games.

"I'm done with this game already. What I need are some cheat codes."

"What if I told you I've got them?" Lionpaw proudly answered.

"Just can't wait to hear that idea." Jaypaw replied dryly. Lionpaw was the dumb one in their family, so he didn't expect much to come from him. While he knew his brother was popular, that is unlikely to come from any planning, and was probably just a result of his brother being tall, athletic, and not disabled.

"You were mostly right about people not wanting to talk with you because of your disability." _No shit._

"You can't change that - but you can make them see you as part of the 'guys'."

"Yeah? And how is that?" Jaypaw asked.

"You need to get punished." Lionpaw said.

"Are you high?"

"Hey, let's go to McDonald's." Lionpaw temporarily changed the subject as they were passing the fast-food restaurant, making Jaypaw even more sure that Lionpaw was, in fact, high.

"No, but I'm serious. You see, no one will respect you, because in case of shit going wrong, everyone will side with you first." Lionpaw started.

"As if it's my fault!" Jaypaw snarled. Now his own brother was blaming him for being patronized.

"Yeah, but the other guys need to see that you aren't invincible. Break some rules. As much as you need to - and suffer the consequences. School is us against them battle, and if they don't like you, that makes you part of us. You've got to trust me on that, man."

Jaypaw was listening quietly to Lionpaw's idea. Was he serious? Was he trying to prank him? Or was he just dumb? With Lionpaw it was hard to tell at times.

"Bonus points if you actually do that to stand up for someone."

Yeah, Lionpaw was dumb enough to believe that.

* * *

The cold, gentle wind tickled Hollypaw's face, as she wandered aimlessly around the park. It wasn't often visited, and Hollypaw liked the solitude the place offered. Too many times lately, she had taken her problems to her room, and it felt like a well of sorrows now, instead of her sanctuary. The park felt like a perfect place to get away from all the things troubling her. The leaves were falling from the trees, covering the grass with the signs of autumn. But she felt it wasn't just nature that was dying this time. She turned back, and started going that way - it didn't really matter, because she was walking in circles anyway, just relaxing and trying to clear her mind.

Her stomach growled. She felt so hungry, but decided to skip the dinner today. There wasn't an easier way to lose weight, and with Hollypaw coming back to gym classes tomorrow, she knew she couldn't expect any mercy from the girls there and wanted to look at least a bit more normal.

Hollypaw saw an old man in the distance feeding the pigeons, and decided to go his direction. She walked slowly, enjoying the scent of fresh air, crispy fallen leaves, and the wind blowing through her hair. She halted in front of a dozen of pigeon blocking her way, and looked at a guy throwing them bread crumbs, sitting on a bench next to the road. He looked much younger than he did from far away - his oversized brown coat, winter hat and long hair made him look like a homeless guy from afar, but seeing him from up close, Hollypaw realized that the boy was around her age, and his face seemed familiar.

"Fallen Leaves! Hi, I haven't seen you in a while." She said, happily surprised to finally see him again.

He shot her a quick glance, but then turned his sight to the birds again.

"Hey. It's... you." He said, resigned.

It felt like a stab for Hollypaw. She expected more enthusiastic answer. Or at least one that didn't make her feel like a bother.

"Why haven't you been in school?" She asked, trying to figure out what's been going on with him.

Fallen Leaves ripped off a piece of bread and threw it amidst the group of pigeons. They all jumped up to it, pecking, pushing each other, and walking one over another, all to get to the food. _As violent as high school. But at least they fight for survival, while Heatherpaw and her group fights for... What exactly?_

"I had to finish moving in." Fallen Leaves responded, looking at the birds.

"Do you move often?" She asked, throwing the leaves off the bench, before she sat down next to him.

His expression didn't change, he was still as straight-faced as he was before.

"Far too often."

"My dad left the military after we were born so we wouldn't have to move all the time." Hollypaw shared. "It must be awful leaving your friends all the time."

He kept staring at the pigeons, whose cooings were the only thing she could hear.

"Good for you." He finally replied.

 _He feels different_. Hollypaw wasn't sure if she wasn't perhaps annoying him. She wanted to talk with him for some time, but never imagined it would go like this. But maybe she expected too much. She barely knew him.

"Are you feeling okay?" She asked.

He smiled faintly, his brown eyes still fixed at one point.

"Just tired. Travelling can do that to you."

Hearing that just reminded Hollypaw of how weary she felt. She didn't even do anything lately, but felt as if all the energy has left her.

"Will you be staying in town?" She asked hopeful.

He nodded gently.

"If I don't move again soon. My... parents move a lot." He said quietly.

"You live nearby?" She inquired further.

He stood up quickly.

"Sorry, I've got to go. See you in school, Hollypaw." He raised his hand in a farewell, without even facing her, and quickly trotted away.

"You too, Fallen Leaves." She said, sitting alone on the bench.

 _What is he hiding?_

* * *

Lionpaw's lips were moving down her neck, him willing to taste her, feel every inch of her body, while her fingers ran down his arm. At this very moment he didn't care about all the people around in the Breezepaw's house looking at them, he was content to just be there, connected with Heatherpaw. Her hands pushed him back by his shoulders.

"You're such a tease, Lionpaw." She said, breathing heavily.

"Come on." She whispered, as she pushed him down against the couch.

She reached up, her hand touching his cheek. She drew in, and pressed her lips against his.

He wrapped his arms around her as she was leading the kiss. Her soft lips sent a fire down his body, and he couldn't do anything but submit. He felt her tongue touch his for the first time, sending a jolt of unspeakable joy. His eyes went wide - so wide that the next thing he saw was the ceiling of his room.

 _It was a dream._ Dream of what happened last night at Breezepaw's. And while still a dream, it felt just as awesome as it was back then. He couldn't dwell on those sweet, sweet, dreams, as heavy knocking on his door interrupted him.

 _That was what must have woken me up._

"Come in!" He said, as he covered himself with his bed sheets.

Opening door revealed his sister behind them. _She always has to ruin everything_.

"What?" He said, angrily.

Her green eyes were burning with rage. Holly made a few decisive steps into his room.

"You weren't in the church today!" She said with grievance.

Is that why Holly wasted his time?

"Yeah, we were. You weren't there, so how could you know?"

"Don't lie to me! Cinderpaw asked me to go with her earlier! And you weren't there." She said, squinting her eyes.

"Keep your voice down!" He shouted. "You promised you would keep quiet to parents, so you better not tell anything. I have enough lectures coming from you."

She was waving her hands in the air hysterically. "You can't just keep acting like that! It's very..."

Lionpaw picked up his pillow and tossed it with all his strength at her, hitting her in the face.

"I don't care! Leave me alone." He said, pointing at the door.

She turned around growling, and left his room, slamming the door behind her.

He sat down on his bed. No point continuing his nap, his sister pissed him off too much. He looked at his phone - 6PM, still a lot of time to do something. Maybe there were better things to do than just dreaming.

He picked up his phone and went to facebook app. Heatherpaw and some other people from yesterday sent him invites, and he accepted them all.

"Hey, Heatherpaw. Mind hanging out somewhere today?" He send her a message.

To his surprise, he almost instantly got a reply.

"Hey there, Lion ;). Party was fun." He read with a smile.

"I'll be honest with you - I'm not looking for a commitment, so I'll have to say no. But I wouldn't mind hooking up at another party ;)." _Damn._ Lionpaw punched his pillow.

He felt hollow. He'd love to join her at the future parties, but he just couldn't stop thinking about how he wanted... something more. He lied down on his bed and stared blankly at the ceiling, just thinking again and again about her reply. There was nothing he could do, but it didn't make him feel any better. He just had to forget about it. He picked up his phone again.

"Yeah, it was fun :). Hope we'll get opportunity for that soon." He typed down, every press hurting him.

 _Just relax, man._ He told himself. And that gave him an idea.

"Hey, could you get me some stuff?" He wrote to her. Lionpaw realized it was good to have some for situations like this. And that would give him some more opportunities to talk to her.

"Sure. How much you need?" She wrote in reply. Lionpaw scratched his head. He didn't have a very good idea how much he needed, or how much it cost. He didn't worry too much about money, with how much his parents were giving him, and worst case, he'd just cut down on video games or new clothes.

"Just a normal amount." He said, hoping that she know.

"K. C-Note for a quarter, let's meet before school on Tuesday, all right?" Hundred bucks? Holy shit, that's expensive. He just hoped that it would last for a few days at least.

"Sure thing." He wrote, concluding the deal.


	9. Chapter 8

Going downstairs made Hollypaw feel like a prisoner that was going to be thrown in to a dungeon. Ever since the first day, going this place has made her feel uneasy. It wasn't even underground, yet it was so dark. It probably had something to do with lack of windows on this side of the building, only reinforcing the prison image in her head. The gym was so far away from other places in the school, it was no wonder that Heatherpaw felt so confident in getting away unpunished - there was no one to run to, and no one would hear your cries for help. Bracing herself for the worst, Hollypaw entered the corridor to the locker room, noting the lingering smell of cleaning utilities in the air. Most of the girls were already there, and Heatherpaw was the first person Hollypaw saw. She tried to keep her cool, and not look scared, but alarm bells inside her were coming off.

"Hey, hobbit." Heatherpaw said, without looking at Hollypaw. "Go get the one key or something."

Hollypaw shivered at the sound of her voice, but it looked like Heatherpaw wasn't interested in her right now. It was the failed reference to Tolkien books that bugged Hollypaw the most. Disregarding it, Hollypaw went to the gym teacher's lounge, exchanging hellos with the girl she passed along, and got the key from miss Whitewing. This time, Hollypaw took her bag with herself, not wanting to risk anything being stolen. Or maybe afraid that they would throw a bomb in her bag. She wasn't quite sure what Heatherpaw and her girls were capable of. Hollypaw opened the door to the locker room, and sat down on the bench in the corner. Wanting to avoid any comments, she quickly changed into her gym clothes. She hasn't hear a word of mockery so far, and taking a glance at Heatherpaw, she wasn't even paying attention to Hollypaw. Most girls were busy talking about some weekend party or upcoming tests. Hollypaw's sighed with relief. Maybe everyone got bored with their bullying already.

* * *

Lionpaw tightened his laces and finished tying his shoes. He was now ready for the gym class. For some reason, the main offered sport in Warriors High was soccer. He always prefered football to it, but for most part it was bearable. Of course, there was something else Lionpaw had on his mind. On the bench in the corner, Mousepaw was nervously looking around. He made a deal with him, and Lionpaw would not let him wriggle his way out of it. He had to be humiliated in front of everyone, or else his revenge wouldn't be complete. _Don't mess this up, you little rat._

But it didn't look like Mousepaw wanted to change. Not nice on his part. Lionpaw took a look at Breezepaw and nodded.

"Hey, Mousepaw, are you not exercising today? Thornclaw won't be happy about you missing yet another gym class." Breezepaw called him out.

"I don't feel like it." He muttered under his breath.

Breezepaw walked up to him.

"What, are you a 'tard or something?"

Mousepaw backed off, hitting a wall in the process and mumbled something that Lionpaw didn't understand.

"Maybe we should you take you to the freak show, eh? Is that your place?" Breezepaw said, showing an intimidating grin on his face.

"Okay, okay. I'll practice today."

At least he knew better than to challenge Lionpaw's group.

"Good." Lionpaw said this time.

Now everyone's eyes were turned at Mousepaw. Lionpaw watched carefully.

Mousepaw looked around nervously and opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

He kicked off his shoes, and took off his pants, revealing pink panties, that were obviously too small for him, that he was wearing. That's what he agreed to, to get the pardon from Lionpaw.

"Hey princess." Breezepaw snickered.

"You've gone to the wrong locker room." Lionpaw said. "Guys, maybe you could show her the way to hers?"

Owlpaw lightning-fast appeared next to Mousepaw, and twisted his arms behind his back, after which he grabbed him by the back of his neck.

"Of course. Come with us." Owlpaw said, and he, along with Breezepaw led him out.

"Please... stop..." Mousepaw said in broken voice, a music to Lionpaw's ears.

 _Now your punishment will be complete._

* * *

Hollypaw jumped up, as loud crash of door hitting the wall broke the conversations in the room. In the door stand was a half-naked scrawny boy, being pushed by a black-haired guy in a gym kit, and burly, tall guy in hoodie and jeans. She had seen them all in some classes, but couldn't remember their names. As she was wondering what was going on, the big guy kicked the scrawny boy inside the locker room. He was wearing nothing but a white t-shirt and pink, girly panties that were barely covering him. _This is sick._ She felt terrified just looking at it.

"Hey ladies, I brought you the missing one." The black-haired guy said, with a disgusting smirk on his face. Hollypaw wished she could wipe it off his face.

"Mousepaw!?" Hazelpaw said, terrified. She jumped to her feet, as her eyes widened. "Why are you wearing my..."

"Oh, so this girl is a thief. Not nice, not nice." The arrogant bully cut in.

Mousepaw was lying at his knees, and she could see his eyes tear up. It felt, surreal. This couldn't be happening. Hollypaw wanted to do something, but she felt numb.

"Yes. For one, give Hazelpaw her panties back. Now." Heatherpaw came up to Mousepaw and looked at him like one would look at an insect.

"Heatherpaw. Enough. This isn't funny. Stop it, stop it!" Hazelpaw ran in to Heatherpaw shouting at her.

Heatherpaw shoved her back, which made Hazelpaw hit the bench.

"Stay out of this. Unless you want to go to boys locker room?" Heatherpaw said, looking at the black-haired guy.

"We know how to take care of a girl." He said, snickering.

Everything was rolling inside Hollypaw. This was sick. She knew that if she was to watch it any longer, she would vomit right there. She looked around the locker room. She wasn't the only one shocked by what was going on, in fact, almost everyone look at least extremely uncomfortable. But no one was doing anything.

"Do it. Now." The burly guy said.

"Thieves used to be punished by whipping. I think twenty whips would suffice here." Heatherpaw continued, unfazed by interruptions.

"Owlpaw, mind giving me your belt?" The black-haired boy said.

Owlpaw only nodded, and removed it from his pants. That was enough for Hollypaw. She couldn't let all this happen. This was too disgusting, too cruel. She could barely feel anything, but there. she found the strength to act. She stood up, made a few steps to that black-haired monster, and swung her fist at his disgusting face with all the force she had.

She had no idea what was happening. Her fist hit something, and it didn't even hurt that much. Until few seconds later, when she felt her knuckles get crushed.

She looked up and saw that he caught her fist with his hand and was crushing it.

He tsked her, looking her straight into eyes.

"Care there, kitten. Wouldn't want to get declawed." He looked even more twisted than from distance, and Hollypaw could feel even more hatred coming from him than from Heatherpaw. Hollypaw thought that she could never truly hate anyone - until now.

She looked at the center, and hoped that Mousepaw took the opportunity to run, but he was just lying there, tears rolling down his face.

"Owlpaw, get her away."

Before Hollypaw could react, she felt a strong grip on her waist, and Owlpaw lifted her up. She hit him, kicked, but to no avail.

He went out of locker room, slammed the door behind him, and threw her into the corridor. His pants were falling off, but he stood still in front of the door to the locker room, observing Hollypaw.

Hollypaw felt wounded and helpless. But Hazelpaw was right earlier. What happened to Hollypaw was nothing comparing to what was happening in this school.

She had to put an end to that.

* * *

Jaypaw walked in to the classroom, and sat down in his usual spot, right by the door. He could hear some girls behind him talking about how screwed they are. Jaypaw didn't care, but he was the only one in the class to have the comfort of knowing his grade. As much as knowing that you got an F can be a comfort. It was only few seconds later that he heard the classroom door closing, followed by Brackenfur's indecisive footsteps. The class instantly fell silent, a strange occurrence in this school.

"I've graded your exams." Brackenfur said, matter-of-factly. "I think everyone knows how well they did on it, so this will be but a formality."

Jaypaw could sense the tension in the air, as if a lightning was about to erupt in the classroom. Jaypaw heard agonizing scrapping of the chair against the floor done by their teacher and shuddered.

"Does anyone object to me reading the grades out loud?" Brackenfur asked.

By the lack of any verbal reaction, Jaypaw figured out that no one did. Not surprising, it's just grades, who cares really.

"Very well then. Hollypaw - F."

Jaypaw doubted his hearing for a second. Did he really hear his sister fail? But there could be no mistake, the classroom was quiet, and Brackenfur was speaking loud and clear. Maybe Jaypaw was just going insane. But hearing his sister's loud moan from the other side of the classroom, he realised that it must be true.

"Jaypaw already knows his grade, but since I'm reading everyone's... F." He didn't feel quite as bad about his grade after knowing that his sister failed, too. At least he wasn't the only one.

The grades weren't very varied. Cinderpaw - F, Hazelpaw - F, Honeypaw - F, Owlpaw - F. F, F and F. Jaypaw couldn't believe what he was hearing. Maybe he was going nuts, after all.

After the last person was listed as receiving an F, Brackenfur stood up and asked "Any questions?"

Jaypaw raised his hand, but didn't wait to be called.

"Let me get this straight, did literally everyone fail?"

Brackenfur cleared his throat.

"I'm afraid so. I have to admit that it's a great personal failure for me as a teacher. I hoped that we could move out of trigonometry, but it looks like we all will have to repeat the material." Brackenfur said, sounding genuinely upset. But Jaypaw wasn't buying it.

"Yes, miss Hollypaw?" Brackenfur said after a moment. She must have raised her hand.

"Maybe you could..." - His sister voice was barely audible.

"...grade this on a curve?" She finished, her voice breaking down.

Brackenfur answered immediately.

"I've considered it. But there's no point in pretending that you understand the material when you clearly don't."

Jaypaw had enough of this.

"That's bullshit." Jaypaw said, as he stood up.

He heard approving yells from the class. "Yeah!"

"You knew we couldn't pass this crap. We didn't have half of the test material in the class, you're just trying to screw us over!" Jaypaw spat, angrily.

"It's a school abuse!" Some girl yelled from behind him. He couldn't quite get what she was talking about, but every bit of support was appreciated.

"We'll report you to the principal!" Shouts from the class continued.

"Silence!" Jaypaw shuddered, it was the first time he heard Brackenfur raise his voice, and it dumbfounded everyone.

"We'll not be talking like this. Only one person speaks at the time." Brackenfur chided.

Jaypaw didn't care.

"You just don't get that we'll not let you walk over us!"

"Jaypaw, detention after school." Brackenfur cut the conversation.

Jaypaw felt like telling him to go to hell, but decided that it wouldn't help him in any way.

"You're almost adult people, and I expect mature behaviour out of you. If you have some problem, we can talk it out, like mature people and not scream at each other like cavemen." Brackenfur said sternly.

 _Yeah, whatever._

"You said, we didn't study this. Let's do the problems together, then. Let's call a random student..." Brackenfur said, pretending to fall into deep thought after this.

"Jaypaw!" He finally called, as expected.

"And now you are going to pick on me?" He said to his teacher. _Nice mess I got myself into._

"No. But you will understand soon enough." Brackenfur replied.

"Okay, let's start with the first question. 'Given sine of an angle, find that angle's tangent.' How would you approach it, Jaypaw?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't get an F." Jaypaw replied. _Is he dumb?_

"All right. What is tangent, then?" Brackenfur probed.

"Sine divided by cosine." Jaypaw answered confidently. He did some homework, so he knew.

"We don't have cosine, though, so it doesn't help us at all." Jaypaw imagined everyone staring at him. Though, probably not thinking he is an idiot. Everyone failed, after all.

"Right. But is there any identity that ties sine with cosine?" Brackenfur asked further.

 _Identity?_ That sounded familiar. And then the realisation hit Jaypaw.

"Oh, the trigonometric identity. If we transform it, we get the cosine... And then plug the numbers... And we get the tangent."

 _Damn. I knew the answer all along._

"And you say we didn't have that in class?" Brackenfur said, and Jaypaw just knew that the teacher was smirking, happy at himself for tricking him like that.

* * *

Hollypaw sat down in the cafeteria next to Cinderpaw. Events from the gym earlier weighted her down, and she hoped that Mousepaw was okay. She should call Hazelpaw later that day, just to be sure. She and her brother left just after the whole horror of the morning ended, before the gym class even started. Not only that, but Hollypaw got her first F. Compared to Heatherpaw's and Breezepaw's action, it felt insignificant, yet... Up until this point, she was always on honor roll. Scratch this. She always had perfect GPA. Her academic life was everything to her. And now... She couldn't even have that. She was a complete failure. A complete failure, in a place so scary that wouldn't dream of it even in her worst nightmares. She wished she could just die right there, right now.

Cinderpaw bumped her shoulder onto Hollypaw's.

"Hey, Hollypaw. Why are you so quiet?" Cinderpaw asked.

Hollypaw wondered how much should she tell her friend. It felt very tempting to share her burdens with Cinderpaw, to have someone help her carry the weight. Maybe receive some help. But it didn't feel right. No, there was no reason to depress Cinderpaw. Hearing the horrors of the school, would surely kill a part of her, and Cinderpaw wouldn't be herself without that cheerful attitude. Heatherpaw needed to be taken care of - but that required a good plan and the right time. That wasn't something she could figure out during the recess, and she imagined Cinderpaw wouldn't have a better solution than telling the teachers. And seeing how they treated Mousepaw... She didn't want to see how they treated 'snitches'. But there had to be an answer.

"I'm just disappointed with math exam." She said, to distract Cinderpaw from real issues.

"Used to straight A's, eh?" Cinderpaw said laughing.

"Yeah. I thought I could be a valedictorian, and then go to Ivy. Fool's dreams." Hollypaw sighed.

Cinderpaw was munching a soy burger, while listening to Hollypaw's sulking.

"School is just starting. You will bump that grade up later." Cinderpaw reassured her.

Hollypaw stared blankly ahead. _If the rest of the classes won't be as hard as that. Maybe I'm just not as good as I thought._

"I think he wanted us all to fail. It was a good lesson." Cinderpaw continued.

 _Did he?_ Hollypaw wasn't so sure. Everything they did was solvable. She just hasn't put enough thought into it. She got a high F - 55%. Almost passing. And most of the class clearly didn't care about math at all.

"It was some Socratic stuff." Hollypaw said, seeing it there, partially.

"And don't think you'll get to be a valedictorian. You'd have to beat me." She said, smiling mischievously.

Hollypaw narrowed her eyes at her friend.

"I don't mind a challenge." Hollypaw replied with a smile.

* * *

The bathroom smelled of urine and cigarettes, in that order. Jaypaw wondered how could guys miss so much to overcome the smothering stench of cigarette smoke. Even if they were blind, it wouldn't be an excuse. Which they weren't. Or maybe the janitors just didn't clean it, and it kept piling on. Either way, Jaypaw knew he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and not touch anything. But with the school no-phone policy, it was the only place he felt safe enough to make a call.

"Siri, call mom." His phone was a pile of crap, but for straight-forward commands like that it worked fine.

He needed to tell Squirrelflight that he had a detention. Brackenfur told him he could serve it on some other day, if transport was a problem, but he wanted to do it now.

"Hey Jaypaw. Did something happen?" Squirrelflight asked in a worried tone.

"I'm just calling to tell you that I'll be coming home later. I have a detention after school."

"Jaypaw! What did you do!"

"I'll explain home." He wasn't in the mood to be scolded right now.

He heard a loud sigh from his phone. "Okay. I'll come take your siblings at normal time, and then come back for you later. When do you finish your detention?"

"I'll come home on my own." He said.

"No." Came the resounding answer. Jaypaw bit his lip. Of course, she wouldn't allow this. Why he expected something else?

"You let Hollypaw take the bus last week." He said, clenching his phone.

"You are not Hollypaw."

"No, you make sure I never forget this." He hissed.

"Jaypaw, this isn't time for your tantrums. You don't know the neighborhood, you don't know where the bus stop is, and you don't have your cane. Tell me when your detention ends." She said bluntly.

Jaypaw briefly considered just hanging up, but then she would just call the school.

"I have to serve two hours."

"Thank you. Remember to stay hydrated." She said, as she ended the call. _Stay hydrated._ Typical mom nonsense.

* * *

Lionpaw entered the classroom. With second week starting, health classes officially began. Only, unlike Holly feared, they would do completely boring stuff. Well, still more interesting and useful than all the other crap they taught at school, and there are classes afterwards, so there would be no benefit to skipping it.

Lionpaw looked around, searching for his pals. Breezepaw and Owlpaw were here, so not too bad. With the side glance, he noticed Jay sitting in the corner. He always sat in the corner.

Their teacher was already standing in the middle of the classroom. Short, balding guy with glasses, so thin that Lionpaw was wondering when he will collapse. The teacher was waiting for the noise to die down.

 _He's going to wait a long time._

"Hello. I'm Barkface, and I'm going to be your health teacher." He said, while all the students were still talking with each other. The teacher's name, that's all Lionpaw wanted to know.

"Today, we'll be learning first aid..." Barkface was saying, but Lionpaw already tuned out. First aid. They taught that every year. And still, he still didn't remember this crap. If he hasn't learned this so far, he wouldn't remember it this time either. So, why put in the effort? And at this moment, he envied Holly, for not having to listen to this rambling.

* * *

Hollypaw liked acting - it felt much easier to express herself this way, than having to be genuine with people. There were quite a few people that have chosen drama as their elective, but Hollypaw was a little bit surprised when she looked around the classroom and saw that there were only two boys here. One was that ginger kid that hanged out with Lionpaw. Hollypaw couldn't help but smile when she noticed Fallen Leaves pressed against the wall, staring at the ground. He looked out of place with his white shirt and black pants. She walked up to him, and pressed herself against the wall, too.

"Looks like we are in the same class after all."

He turned her head to look at her. His brown eyes seemed to have a sad light to them.

"Good to see you." He said, and she noticed a wrinkle deepen between his eyebrows. He didn't look happy.

"I didn't know you like acting."

"I'm good at it. Supposedly." He said, after which he pursed his lips.

"All right, people! Let's get quiet for a moment!" Ashfoot, their drama teacher started.

"For the first few days we will do some general acting exercises. After two weeks we will hold a casting for a play that we will be working on." She continued.

"Don't worry, everyone will take part in the performance, though not necessarily in the role they wanted."

Hollypaw wasn't worried. She was confident in her skills, and was pretty sure she could land any role she wanted.

"For our first play, we'll do Steel Magnolias. I'll need a few days to adapt the script for our group. But please familiarize yourself with it as soon as possible." Ashfoot finished.

Hollypaw has heard about Steel Magnolias, but her knowledge of it ended on the title.

She turned to Fallen Leaves.

"You won't have much competition for the male lead." She said humorously to him.

"There is no male lead in the play." He said, staring straight ahead.

"There isn't?" She asked confused.

"Oh, don't worry. Miss Ashfoot will surely throw a bone or two, so everyone will be included. But you could do the play without any men, so it's unlikely that I'll get anything of plot importance." He said.

Hollypaw watched him carefully. She wouldn't want to play a shoehorned, irrelevant role, but Fallen Leaves didn't seem bothered by it. Whatever is bothering him isn't related to the class.

"My mother used to watch the movie adaptation a lot." He turned his face away, as he was saying this.

"Class, class! Let's start with some breathing exercises." Ashfoot cut her short, before she could ask Fallen Leaves any more questions.

* * *

Jaypaw was escorted for detention by Graystripe. He recognized the familiar way. It wasn't long until he entered his prison for the next two hours - classroom 203.

"Will I be alone?" Jaypaw asked.

"Poppypaw is serving detention as well. But you are not allowed to talk, so that shouldn't matter." He cautioned Jaypaw.

Jaypaw shrugged. _Or what? You will make me serve more detention?_

"Poppypaw, you have a guest!" Graystripe said.

"You are allowed to study and do homework. No cellphones, talking, doing stupid stuff, or leaving the classroom. Please sit away from each other. Is that clear?"

"Mhm." Jaypaw answered.

"Yeah." He heard a girl's voice. So that's Poppypaw.

"Have fun. I'll see you in two hours." Graystripe said, leaving the classroom.

Jaypaw sighed. _It will take forever._ He sat on his desk

"What do people do in detention, anyway?" Poppypaw asked.

"No idea. Haven't been on one yet." He replied.

"Well, makes two of us. Isn't Graystripe supposed to watch over us?"

"I don't think he earned punishment to have to sit with us for two hours."

Poppypaw laughed.

"I guess. You're Jaypaw, right? What did they throw you in here for?"

Desk wasn't the most comfortable thing to sit on, so Jaypaw decided to lie back on it. It was too short to do so comfortably, but still better than sitting on it.

"Arguing with teacher or something. You?"

She started giggling.

"Oh, it's silly."

That piqued his interest.

"Yeah? What was it?"

More 'hihihi' came.

"It's awkward."

Jaypaw jumped to his feet.

"Come on. I told you why I'm here."

"Okay, but you have to swear you won't tell anyone. You promise?"

Jaypaw nodded. "Sure, I'll keep quiet."

She bursted out into laughter again.

"Oh, my, I can't. Okay. I was checking something on the Internet in the library, and I clicked on a wrong link. You know, that kind of a wrong link. Hey, I was curious!"

Jaypaw felt his face getting red.

"Don't they have that sort of stuff blocked?"

"Not all of it, it seems. And remember! You promised!" She shouted.

* * *

"And I wanted to be a classical singer, but the piano lessons were so boring! I mean, my mom made me take them anyway, but thankfully she let me stop after I turned twelve. Music's too much work for me." Poppypaw said.

"I imagine. My brother plays guitar - or plays one song on the guitar, to be more specific. No one believed he would get that far, when he bought it three years ago." Jaypaw laughed. Thinking about it, he wondered if he actually managed to pick up a girl with the guitar. Somehow, he doubted that.

"What about you? Who do you want to be?" Poppypaw asked.

 _Tricky question_. Who Jaypaw wanted to be? For far too long, he thought that he he could only be no one. For now, he had no answer.

"Haven't figured out yet." He said.

"That's natural. We still have a lot of time." He felt her hand gently resting on his shoulder.

The door opened with loud crack, and Poppypaw took her hand back.

"What are you two doing sitting on a windowsill like that? You were supposed to stay at your desks!" Graystripe scolded them.

"Oops." Poppypaw said.

"All right, your time is over. But if I catch you breaking the rules next time you get the detention, you'll be writing essays the whole time!"

Jaypaw jumped to his feet. "Of course, I'll do that." He said dryly.

"Now, go home." Graystripe urged them.

They walked out of the classroom, and headed towards the stairs. Jaypaw was surprised how quickly those two hours flew by.

"I hope I never get the detention again." Jaypaw said, walking downstairs.

"Same. But hey, Jaypaw." Poppypaw stopped two steps above him.

He paused, too, waiting for her.

"Yes?"

"If you do, let me know. Maybe we can serve it together again."

Jaypaw smiled. "Of course."

It didn't take them long to reach the main entry to the school. The door opened with the same annoying squeak that it always did. He wondered why no one bothered to oil the damn door. It was cold outside, but it maybe it just felt that way, with the strong wind blowing in their faces. The area was quiet, aside from the wind. Most people are probably resting from work or school.

"Where are you going, Jaypaw?" Poppypaw asked.

"My mom will come over for me."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed. "I'm going that way." She said, ignoring the fact that he couldn't see what direction she meant. "That's goodbye, then."

"See you." He raised his hand to signal goodbye.

"You too, Jaypaaa-H!" Her saying her name turning into an uncertain yell, interrupted by a loud crack.

Jaypaw felt blood pounding in his ears.

"Poppypaw? Poppypaw!?" He asked loudly.

She wasn't responding. He felt his hands shaking, and not because of the coldness outside.

"Help!" He shouted on top of his lungs. Would someone hear him? He knew that this place wasn't visited often, especially not at this time. Maybe he should run back to school for help. No. He had to check if Poppypaw was safe.

He cautiously approached the stairs where he thought Poppypaw was standing just a moment ago. He made very small steps, not feeling confident with his spatial senses. His heart was beating fast. What if something happened to her? If only he could see that she is alright! Jaypaw found the edge of the top step. He kneeled down, and reached out with his hands, looking for his friend.

She wasn't on the first step. Jaypaw move onto the second. Jaypaw shivered as his fingers connected with some fabric.

"Everything will be okay Poppypaw!"

He moved his hand closer. He figured out he found her arm. _I need to check if she has any head injuries._

He moved his hand along her arm. _I don't like how it's positioned. It's so twisted... I don't think it's supposed to be like that._ He brushed that off. Dislocated arm wouldn't be an immediate problem anyway.

There was her head! She was lying sideways on the stair step. Jaypaw shook her cheek.

"Poppypaw? Can you hear me? Wake up! Please!" He could hear his heart pounding in his chest. He moved his hand around her head, but couldn't find any blood.

 _Thanks God._

What next? He had a first aid class just a few hours ago, but his mind was a black hole at the moment.

 _Breathing!_

"A lack of oxygen for three minutes can cause irreversible brain damage. That's why you need to remember to..." Barkface voice rang in his head. How long since she fell? _Don't think about it._ But the looming threat was still on his mind. What if it's too late? Her scream felt like it happened an eternity ago.

Remember what? Check breathing. He moved his hand in front of her face. He should feel her breath, right? He didn't feel it. But his hand was shaking, and the wind was so strong, he wasn't sure if it wasn't there, he's not feeling it, or confusing it with wind.

 _Check the chest._

He pushed his hand under her shirt, and waited a second.

 _It's not moving. CPR. I need to do CPR. God._

He moved to steps down, and kneeled in front of her. Jaypaw pinched her nose closed, and pressed his lips to hers.

Sweat was dripping from his face, and his throat didn't want to open. But he had to, he knew he had to. One breath. Second breath.

Now presses. How many should he do? 10? 15? 30? He didn't remember.

"It doesn't matter. Just do something!" His mind was yelling at him. Steadily placing his hands on where he thought was her breastbone, he gave a strong push. His arms felt like they were about to fall off, but he continued. He had to do everything he could.

"19,20. It'll be okay, Poppypaw!"

"Fuck!" He murmured under his breath. No one called for medical help. Of course. There was only him and Poppypaw there.

He pulled out his phone. "Siri, call help!"

As phone was calling, he squashed it between his head and shoulder.

"Emergency services here, what's the problem?"

"Send help to Warriors High! Unconscious girl, not breathing."

"The help is on the way. Sir, we'll need you to perform CPR, are you familiar with the procedure?"

Million thought were running wild in Jaypaw's head. He could barely hear the operator.

"I'm doing it already." He said, as he took a pause for two breaths.

"Good. Please focus on that. Can you tell me if the girl has any wounds?"

"I don't know." He answered frantically.

Another push, and one more. He thought it didn't offer as much resistance as it did before. He hoped he didn't do anything wrong.

And another breath, and one more.

"You said we'll have to serve another detention together! You can't die here, you understand!" He shouted to Poppypaw. He hoped she could hear him, even if she was unconscious.

"Please calm down. Everything is going to be okay." The operator tried to reassure him, but how can she know?

A loud, rising noise registered in his mind. _Ambulance siren!_

"They're almost here, Poppypaw. Stay strong." He said, making another series of pushes. Just a little longer.

"Step aside." A low voice behind Jaypaw said. He didn't have the opportunity to do so, as he was shoved away.

"We'll take over."

Jaypaw felt relief as he understood that paramedics were here. And it felt good to feel anything, his whole body was completely numb.

 _God, please let her be okay._


	10. Chapter 9

The humid air in the locker room irritated Hollypaw's nostrils. She tried not to think too much about what was happening around, just change and leave. This place had tormented her too much.

"Hello there." A male voice behind her resonated.

She turned around to face the black-haired boy who tormented Mousepaw from yesterday. Breezepaw. She learned his name later, in an English class they had together.

She wanted to tell him to go away, but fear tied her throat.

Hollypaw nervously looked around the room. All the girls have already left. Why didn't she notice it before? Only Heatherpaw remained, and was casually looking at her nails, as if nothing happened.

"You broke the code, and you'll pay for it." Breezepaw said, licking his lips afterwards.

"I didn't know you were into fat bitches, Breezepaw." Heatherpaw said, as Breezepaw closed in.

"Stop." Hollypaw said, but she could barely hear her own voice. Breezepaw was closing in, and Hollypaw desperately looked for a place to run. Fight him? Try to make it to the door? She was taller than him, but he was so much stronger. She took a moment, hoping that opportunity for her to escape would arise, but to no avail.

Breezepaw was just a few steps away from her, there was no more time. She ran. A strong force grabbed her hand, pulled backwards, pushed against the wall. Her back crashed against the hard, tile-covered walls of the changing room. Her wrists were being held up against the wall. She tried to move her arms, but it was too much for her.

In front of her was Breezepaw, with his demonic, self-congratulatory smirk.

"Don't worry, you are going to enjoy this." He said, scanning her. His touch felt slimy. She didn't want him to talk to her. She didn't want him to touch her. She didn't want him to look at her.

"Help!" Hollypaw screamed, her voice echoing in the small room.

Sweat ran down her face. She tried kicking, shoving him away, but he overpowered her completely.

And then the alarm rang. Hollypaw opened her eyes in a heartbeat, still feeling sweat running down her spine.

She sat down on her bed, panting.

It was just a dream. Just a bad dream.

In a swift motion she turned off the alarm on her phone. She stared blankly at it, her mind being in a completely different place. It may have been a dream, but after what they did to Mousepaw, she knew it could become a reality.

* * *

Lionpaw had some things to do before the school, but he had to pretend to go into the crumbling, old building before Squirrelflight drove away. As soon as he could see the car disappearing, he jumped off the stairs and headed toward the alley.

He felt good seeing the place again, as abandoned and dirty as it was before. Even the shards of glass from Mousepaw's glasses remained in the place they were before.

Heatherpaw was already waiting for him, confidently standing in the center of the alley, wearing her trademark black leather. He walked up to her, and leaned in for a kiss.

Heatherpaw side-stepped him and with all her force, she elbowed him into the side. Bending in pain, Lionpaw moaned.

"I'm not your girlfriend, don't you forget that." She said unapologetically.

"So-sorry." He said, still shaken by the blow.

"Go get some vapid girl if you want innocent kisses, staring at the moon, dinners by candlelight or other mushy crap."

"I'd..." He felt his stomach twisting. "I'd rather be with you."

"Don't worry. I'm going to play with you whether you are single or not." She said smiling. Lionpaw didn't like the way she talked about any of this. Like he was her toy and she didn't care about his opinion. But the memory of the night at Breezepaw's just couldn't die, and Lionpaw was willing to do anything for it to happen again.

"But when you are with me, you do as I say. Understand?" She said, grabbing his chin, forcing him to look into her eyes. She emanated with commanding presence, and her eyes displayed dominance that he couldn't refuse. And yet, despite the harshness, he just couldn't see anything besides the beauty of her bright, heather-blue eyes.

"Yes. I'll do as you say." He said. He felt uneasy being ordered by a girl, but that's the price he was willing to pay to be with her.

"Now, you got money?"

Lionpaw nodded, and pushed a bunch of bills into her hand.

She passed him a small paper bag.

Lionpaw's fingers itched with anticipation. He remembered it feeling so good, and now he could smoke weed whenever he wanted to. Expensive, sure, but worth it. His hands shaking, he opened the bag- or tried to, as Heatherpaw's hand stopped him.

"Don't do it right away. Only junkies do that." She said, looking at him with disgust.

Lionpaw placed the bag into his backpack, embarrassed to learn that. He didn't want to appear desperate.

The school bell rang, and even from this distance it could be heard, although faintly.

"Later!" Lionpaw said, running back to school.

* * *

It didn't surprise Jaypaw that Poppypaw didn't show up at school, but it still worried him. The memory of the limp, cold body under his hands was hard to forget, but he knew - with certainty, or perhaps just foolish hope - that she was okay. But Jaypaw didn't know if she had family or friends in school, and asking everyone if they knew what happened to her seemed excessive - and telling random people about the accident didn't feel right.

Jaypaw was brought back to the reality by the commotion. The teacher must have arrived, and obiediently Jaypaw dragged himself into the class.

Littlecloud, their biology teacher was pretty cool, but that made him have some trouble keeping discipline in classroom. Jaypaw found it hard to concentrate with everyone talking around, and Littlecloud's voice drowned in the ocean of meaningless conversations. All that was pretty normal, but the day felt unusual. Even with all the noise around it felt tranquil to what a usual day felt like.

Then it hit him.

Jaypaw turned around.

"Hey, Cinderpaw, why are you so quiet?"

"Huh?" She replied surprised.

"You stalk me in every class, always sit near me and bother me all day. But not today. Why?"

"I don't stalk you. I just wanted to be in biology." She said flatly. No cheeky comments?

"Something happened?" He asked, rocking back in his chair.

"Please remember to prepare for the exam on Friday." Littlecloud interrupted him, but Jaypaw wasn't paying attention. He could hear Cinderpaw writing it down, though.

"My sister's in hospital. I'm worried about her." She sad sadly.

"I'm sorry. I hope she gets better." He said. It was typical sort of an empty encouragement that Jaypaw hated to hear, but he didn't have anything better to offer.

"Thanks Jaypaw." She said. "You know, I chose biology, because I want to be a vet. Do you think animals have souls?" She asked randomly.

Jaypaw scratched his head. The question felt meaningless.

"Don't know, don't care." He said, shrugging.

"If ever looked into dog's eyes, you wouldn't have any doubts." She said.

"Sorry, that was insensitive." She quickly followed, much to Jaypaw's annoyance.

"I hate dogs." Jaypaw said.

"But I was thinking... Maybe instead of trying to help animals, I should get into med, and help people instead. I just hate how powerless I am to help my sister."

Jaypaw could understand her there. Thinking about Poppypaw yesterday... He wanted to help more. And maybe, just maybe, Cinderpaw's idea wasn't the worst one in the world.

* * *

Hollypaw walked around the cafeteria, but couldn't find Cinderpaw anywhere. She hasn't come yet. Hollypaw decided that there was no point in walking around anymore, and just sat down to the first free table she could find. She checked her seat before, avoiding any wierd-colored stains or spilled, unknown liquids she hoped were just soda, and starting to eat the salad she picked for lunch. It was typical school food, so bland she could have as well chewed wet paper instead. It was probably the only low calorie thing on the menu.

Fallen Leaves walked up to her table, but kept watching her without saying anything.

"Hey there." She said, after she swallowed some more tasteless vegetable slop.

"Hi." He said. "Mind if I sit down?"

Hollypaw smiled internally. Up to this point, she always initiated contact, and she was getting worried she was annoying him.

"Sure, you can join me."

He sat down and rubbed his eyes.

"You eat like a rabbit." He said, raising his eye-brow.

She raised her hand indignantly

"I like healthy food."

He shook his head. "School food can't be healthy by definition."

"Well, it tastes as bad as healthy food."

"Fair point." He said, chuckling. "Anyway... Something's bothering you, isn't it?" He said, fixing his eyes at her.

Hollypaw took a small bite of salad, to give herself more time to evaluate the situation. She wanted to have some second opinion on her situation and some help, but she wasn't sure how much she could trust him, or if he would understand it. Somehow, she didn't think appearing weak would earn Hollypaw any sympathy. But she had a feeling that she could trust him.

"Okay." She said, massaging her temples.

"There's this girl. Heatherpaw." Hollypaw decided to start with her. Breezepaw would be a tougher nut to crack.

Fallen Leaves was watching carefully and didn't budge at the mention of her name. She hoped it meant he didn't know Heatherpaw.

"She's pretty mean. And let's just say that's an understatement." She added a meaningful look to the second sentence.

"I can handle whatever she dishes out at me, but I don't think she should be able to terrorize everyone." She said. It wasn't exactly true, but she didn't want to appear weak.

Fallen Leaves acknowledged her words with nodding.

"Heatherpaw, you say." He said, staring off into the distance. He knows her?

"Have you seen the movie Heathers? It's about a guy and girl in High School who murder some bullies and make it look like a suicide. The main antagonist name is Heather."

Hollypaw shrugged. "I'm more of a book type." She said with a smile. "You are some sort of movie geek?"

"I guess." He replied.

"So, that's your idea? Killing Heatherpaw?" She said, laughing. Well, that was one way of distancing from one's problems.

"Hey, it would work. Or you can watch the movie. It'd be pretty cathartic."

Fallen Leaves pushed his hands against the table and stood up.

"I have it on DVD if you'd like to watch it sometime." He thrown out before moving away.

* * *

Lionpaw was standing in the middle of the hallway with Breezepaw and Heatherpaw. By now, the rest of the students have already figured out that they shouldn't interrupt them, and everyone was careful not to bump into them.

"Mousepaw's hiding again. I can't even get satisfaction from his sulking." Lionpaw said frustrated. He prepared some cool insults, but it won't be the same when he couldn't say them straight into his face.

"Don't worry, pink princess has learned a lesson for life. She won't ever forget that." Breezepaw said.

"It was pretty sad that the girls had to defend him. A real guy should stand up for himself." Heatherpaw said with contempt.

Lionpaw nodded. Mousepaw's insult was one thing, but the real reason Lionpaw hated him is how weak Mousepaw was. He just cried and begged, like a little girl. His behaviour was so disgusting.

"Speaking of that." Breezepaw said. "You should control your girls better, Heatherpaw. That one crazy bitch tried to punch me yesterday. I thought you ruled them with an iron fist."

Heatherpaw rolled her eyes.

"She's pretty pathetic. She only tried that, because, look at yourself. You just look weak." Heatherpaw said, giving him a pitying look.

Breezepaw growled.

"Then at least let me get back at her." He said, his eyes reeking of fury.

Breezepaw didn't seem bothered before, so Lionpaw guessed that Breezepaw's anger was more of a result of Heatherpaw's mockery than of what happened yesterday. She knew how to press people's buttons.

"Denied." She said nonchalantly. "I already broke her. You'd just mess it up." She said, turning away, leaving Lionpaw and Breezepaw alone.

Breezepaw's eyes were still focused on Heatherpaw.

"She thinks she can order me around. But I'll get my revenge on that girl, whether Heatherpaw agrees to it or not."

Lionpaw stretched himself.

"Need help with that?" He offered.

"No." Breezepaw grinned. "I can deal with her alone."


End file.
